Forever Resentful
by Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian
Summary: Sakura’s life is falling apart. So in a quick decision to pick up the broken pieces, she auditions for a world-renowned band…and gets the part! But, what happened to the former singer and who’s this mysterious man who can’t take his eyes off her? ItaSaku
1. Hey There, Baby Doll!

A/N: Howdy! How ya'll doin' today? Well, as you can see, my (as in, Italova) identity problem has only gotten worse... n.n; But, I think that may be because of the pixie stix I snorted in place of my breakfast... hoo doggeh! Dem be sum gud coke replacements! XD

Well, here's the first chapter of the story... again... Enjoy! (Oh, and we're losing a lot of reviews doing this, so _please_, in the name of all that is holy, REVIEW!!!)

Lova ya!

LavaLova

Haruno Sakura rushed into her cubicle-office, trying to untangle herself from her jacket and answer her whining phone at the same time.

_Ring… Ring…_

"Don't hang up!" she shouted at the still-ringing phone, finally freeing one arm and lunging at the plastic device. "Haruno Sakura, legal secretary," she panted into the receiver, setting down her briefcase and falling into her computer chair. "How can I be of service?"

"Took you long enough," Ino stated on the other end.

"Oh, hey, Ino, hold on a sec." Without waiting for an answer, Sakura set the receiver on the cramped desk, pried her other arm from the padded jacket and unwound the scarf from around her neck.

When she picked up the phone again and put it to her ear, she asked, "Who's ever heard of snow in July? That's just uncalled for."

"I know, it's like Hell freezing over here," Ino replied with a sigh. "Too bad it couldn't wait till tomorrow, eh?"

Sakura blinked rapidly with confusion. "Why? What's so special about today?"

"Don't tell me you forgot!" her friend exclaimed with exasperation. "It's your birthday, girl!"

"… Oh," she replied, slumping into the chair and kicking off her uncomfortable shoes. "I thought it was something important, like Ino Appreciation Day."

"Make all the 'Ino's so self-centered' jibes you want, m'dear, but you're not getting out of a birthday party."

"Oh, come on Ino," she whined, sitting up again.

"Speaking of self-centered," Ino ignored Sakura's whining protests as she continued on, "Didn't your beau at least wish you a happy birthday?"

"Well, he's so busy with work and all and he's been so stressed l—"

"Sakura," Ino interrupted, "It's a simple yes, or a not-so-simple no."

Sakura sighed. "No."

There was nothing but silence before her friend asked, "Will he be at the party?"

"Probably not?" The end of her answer turned up into a question and Sakura bit her lower lip. This was definitely going to bring on a lecture.

It was Ino's turn to sigh. "Tell me again why you put up with him?"

"He is _fantastic _in bed."

"And he's hot," Ino added.

"So hot!"

"Speaking of hotness, did you hear the latest Show Biz scandal?"

"No, but you're probably going to tell me anyway, right?"

"Right!"

"Alright," Sakura gave in without a fight. "Carry on then."

"Well, you know the lead singer for FOR?"

"Uchiha Itachi, right?"

"Exactly, apparently he broke off from the band! He's starting an all new one in a matter of weeks!"

"Wow, the band must be majorly PO'd."

"No, really?" she asked dryly.

Sakura heard a beep and the second line on the phone began to flash, telling her she had another caller. "Oh, gottta go, Ino, talk to you later."

"Party's at six at your place. Oh, and act surprised because I wasn't supposed to tell you."

"Sure thing." With that, Sakura hung up, pressed the button for the awaiting line and greeted her caller.

It was quarter past five and Sakura was wondering what to do until the "surprise" party.

She picked up the phone and dialled the number she'd memorized by heart, but, after several rings, an electric beep sounded and went to voicemail.

"Hey, Baby," she cooed. "Just thought I'd see if you were home, but I guess not. Call me, okay? Love you, bye."She hung up and slumped back into the couch with a sigh.

She so wanted to see him, it wasn't fair.

Then it hit her. She could sneak over to his apartment, surprise him when he got back and come back here for the party!Hell, it'd put on the whole oblivious act if she was a little late, too.

The plan was flawless! So, throwing on her Winter-in-July gear, she rushed out of the apartment and headed down the street, humming the Birthday Song.

Sakura stood outside of the apartment, giggling mischievously, marvelling at the sheer perfect-ness of her plan.

She used her spare key to unlock the door and stepped into the dark apartment.

She could swear she heard voices, though, as she shut the door behind herself. Simply putting it off as the neighbours, she started feeling her way to find a light switch.

That's when she noticed the light spilling out into the hallway.

_He's not here, _she thought with an emotion caught somewhere between confusion and fear. _He's not here, it's just me. Me, myself and no psychopath killer…_

Oddly enough, despite Sakura's fear and reluctance to see just who was in the apartment with her, she found her legs carrying her forward, pulling her toward what she didn't want to know.

As she continued onward, her legs moving of their own accord, she noticed just which room the light was coming from: the bedroom.

The door to the room slightly ajar, it reminded Sakura of every scary movie she'd ever seen.

The unsuspecting virgin, driven by naiveté and curiosity, opens the door to see a room filled with bloody corpses and the possessed inanimate object (ranging from a picture to a sports car) is right in the middle of it all, basking in its wonderful evilness.

But, when she poked the door open with the tips of her shaking fingers, there were no corpses scattered amongst the room, and no evil objects straight out of a Stephen King novel.

What _was_ in the room, however, was much, much worse.

A/N: I know most of you have already told us you like this, and you already know who the demon straight out of a Stephen King book is, but PLEASE! It doesn't hurt to tell somebody over again, does it? Come on, this is our self-esteem on the line here! Review, dammit! ... Pwetty pwease? Thank woo! n3n


	2. Brains and Curves

A/N: Hewwo! :crazy wave: Italova here! Well, you've probably _just _read chapter one... and you probably _just _reviewed, too, right? Anyway, enjoy the chappy!

"Oh, shit!" Hatori shouted, gaping while he moved off of Ino.

Sakura could almost feel her mind shut down as she stared at her boyfriend and her best friend scramble to hide under the covers. The worst part about seeing it happen was that she wasn't even the least bit shocked. She watched in unsurprised horror as the two peered back at her from beneath the sheets, waiting fearfully for a reaction.

All the missing pieces seemed to just mesh together so suddenly, it hit Sakura like a ton of bricks. All those times Hatori was supposed to be home, but never answered the phone, all those times Ino poked and prodded for her to dump him, how they were always missing at the same time. The scent of Ino's perfume wafting around the furniture….

"Sakura," Ino finally whispered, poking her head out from under the covers. "I-I can explain."

"Can you?" she asked, the hopefulness in her voice catching her off-guard, making her angrier. She knew she so desperately wanted a reasonable explanation for all of this, something to tell her that it wasn't what it looked like. But that wasn't going to happen and she knew it. This realization only fuelled her anger further. "Can you?" she asked again, her voice now filled with contempt and betrayal.

Ino reared back, looking as though Sakura had just slapped her, her surprise clearly evident.

_Well, at least that makes one of us…_

"Sakura," Ino pleaded, clenching the covers to her chest. "Please, Sakura, don't be like this."

Sakura snarled. "I'm not _being_ like anything. If I _was_ being like this, I'd do this!" She grabbed the closest object in reach—the phone—and chucked it across the room. It connected with the wall and broke into several small pieces, raining down on the two in the bed.

Sakura didn't have time to watch as Ino ducked under the covers, though. She was much too busy reaching for the next projectile she'd launch. "Or this!" she screamed, throwing anything and everything she could find. "Or this! Or this! Or this! Or this!"

Ino rolled out of the bed, forgetting the blanket, trying to dodge the deadly weapons Sakura was throwing, revealing the skimpy lace baby doll she wore.

This, of course, made Sakura furious and she reached for her next weapon, trying to find the biggest object she could to throw at her now-former best friend.

"Sakura," she heard _him_ shout from under the covers, "Sakura, that's enough!"

She paused, a rather large encyclopaedia in her hand, and glared at the covers. "What?"

"I-I'm sorry, Sakura," he apologized, "This… it just happened, okay? We were going to tell you—"

"On my birthday?!" she screamed, throwing the book full force, this time aiming at the bed.

From the loud shout and the accompanying curses, Sakura supposed it was safe to say the book had hit its target.

She glared at the terrified Ino, cowering on the floor, crying, and said, "Thanks for the great surprise, Ino." Turning on her heels, she fled out of the room, out of the apartment and, eventually, out of the building and into the sharp, brisk coldness.

She cried all the way home, the tears making the harsh winds hitting her face just that much colder. Sobs racked her body and she almost slipped a few times, not bothering to watch for patches of ice. A few cars just barely evaded hitting her when she walked across the street while the light was red and she wished that they hadn't bothered.

All the lights in her apartment were off, she noticed as she stood outside her apartment building, but she knew that all—well, most, anyway—of her friends and family were lying in wait up there, giggling in excitement for what was to come.

She almost didn't want to go inside and ruin everything. They could all just go home after a few hours of waiting, once they realized that she wasn't coming. Unfortunately, she knew that she'd just end up getting phone call after phone call the next day, so she reluctantly walked inside and headed up the stairs.

When she opened the door to her apartment, a large group of people jumped out of their hiding places and swarmed around her. "Surprise!" Then they all stopped in their tracks, gasping at the sight of her tear-stained, make up-smeared face.

"Sakura?" she heard her mother ask with disbelief. "What on earth happened to you?"

She didn't answer, only rushed to her room and slammed the door shut, falling onto her bed to sob uncontrollably.

Yes, surprise indeed.

A/N: Oh, and, for those who didn't read the first version of this story, the chapter titles are probably pretty confusing, so I shall explain it because I am the all-knowing, impotent (CandyLava: um... I think you mean _omnipotent_) ... hush! Anyway, I shall explain! The chapter titles each contain a clue pertaining to the next chapter! Pretty cool, huh? XD

Well, review!


	3. Comfort Food Gone Bad

A/N: Well, none of you have read this chapter yet, so all of you may enjoy! X3

* * *

"Excuse me, Ms. Haruno?"

Startled out of her reverie, Sakura turned to her younger blushing co-worker with a tired forced smile. "Yes Michio what is it?"

"I'm supposed to let you know that the boss wants to see you in his office right away."

Realizing immediately that this must be due to her poor work ethics as of late, she suddenly became very much aware of her current unseemly posture. Although sitting comfortably in her chair, her legs were propped up and splayed on either side of her computer which was in turn resting amid an unorganized, catastrophic flood of un-filed paperwork, some of which with very large coffee stains.

She also noticed, to her horror, that her pink silken underwear was being put on generous display to whomsoever happened to peek over the dividing cubicle wall in front of her. No wonder Ebisu, her scrawny neighbor, had been smiling so wickedly every time he leaned over to make conversation about the weather. My God she had been out of it. Reeealllly out of it.

Turning once again to her right, she spoke in a loud assured voice in order to draw attention away from her rising embarrassment while she slowly dragged her legs off her desk. "Oh uh, thanks for passing along the message Michio. I'll just uh, finish up here first," she said indicating the papers strewn haphazardly on the top of her too small desk.

Doubt filled his eyes but he plastered on a friendly, encouraging smile before offering her some advice. "Just tread lightly, okay? The boss don't look too happy."

Sakura felt some emotion stir in the pit of her stomach which she assumed to be fear before brushing it swiftly aside. A scolding. She would be in for a scolding, nothing more than that.

As the junior man bounded away in ignorant bliss, she glanced down again at her mess of papers. In all actuality, before Michio had arrived, she had been doing absolutely nothing. Well, at least nothing productive anyway. Daydreaming of revenge scenarios didn't exactly help fill out the stacks of paperwork littered around her messy cubicle.

Not wanting to go, but realizing that being late would only aggravate her boss further, Sakura sighed in defeat, stood up, brushed the wrinkles from her grey skirt, and made her way to what she feared would be an unpleasant encounter.

Arriving calmly twenty-three seconds later, her plump boss took a good long look at her before offering her a seat in the chair across from him. She took it gladly and once again marvelled at the spotless office. Despite looking like a pig, smelling like a pig and occasionally snorting like a pig, the man was a clean freak when it came to work. She highly doubted, however, that he was the man responsible for the pristine appearance of the office, and instead assumed that he had a very dedicated and very highly paid cleaning crew.

"Ms. Haruno, I assume you know why I've summoned you to my office."

Sakura nodded, an apologetic smile curving her lips. "Yes, I think I do, and I'd just like to--"

"You're fired."

"…..wait, what!?"

"Please don't make me say it again Ms. Haruno. Your fired."

"But I-- You cant just--"

"Actually I can, I am, and so you are. Fired that is."

Sakura's smile immediately fell flat and her eyes widened in shock. She was fired? Fired!? She swallowed and tried absorbing the words still coming out of that flapping hole under his large snout. This was all wrong. Shouldn't she be getting a warning first!? A: 'Do this and that and if don't stop doing this I'm afraid I'll have to fire you'?!

This didn't make any sense! Save for the last week, she had been an entirely dependable and extremely hardworking employee at this law firm! Hell, she would even go so far as to say she was _the_ most dependable and hardworking employee at this underpaying law firm!

Realizing she was glaring daggers at her boss, she quickly swallowed her anger along with her pride and attempted to put some sense into that lard-filled balding noggin of his.

"Mr. Hayashi, I understand that during this past week I haven't been performing up to our company's high standards but I promise that if you'd just--"

"I don't want to hear your excuses, Sakura."

She tried a different approach.

"Please, Mr. Hayashi I need the money for rent and food and, if you'd just give me another opportunity, I promise that I'll-"

"I don't want to hear your empty promises either."

Sakura clenched her hands into fists at her side until the nails bit into her soft flesh. She could feel a vein throbbing in her temple and the room's temperature seemed to suddenly skyrocket. She assumed her face now was the same bright pink color of her hair, although, in her mind, she didn't feel all pink and dandy.

She was pissed.

Being just pissed off however didn't help curb the anger she knew she hadn't fully released after discovering her cheating boyfriend and lying friend doing acrobatics in the sack on _her _birthday!

This was bad. No. Not bad. This was insane!! She knew her behaviour during the last week may have warranted a scolding. Perhaps even a suspension. But certainly not expulsion! She had apologized. Or, at least tried to before her boss had so rudely cut her off! She was not spouting empty promises and lame excuses either! They were all sincere apologies and viable reasons!

"Mr. Hayashi," she tried again, "I really don't understand why you wont give me another chance to redeem myself."

She watched as her massive boss leaned away from his desk in order to toss out an empty pen before slowly turning back to her, grunting with the effort it took.

"I understand your frustration, Sakura, but I've also received some very intense heartfelt complaints coming from a select few of our employees. It seems your becoming a liability and a distraction."

"Mr. Hayashi I understand all that, but I'm telling you that I can and I _will_ change my current work habits until I am once again a reliable and self motivated employee."

Mr. Hayashi sighed in annoyance. "These complaints started coming in weeks ago, Sakura."

The pink haired woman stilled. "Weeks ago?"

"Yes"

Sakura felt confusion flood her mind. Weeks ago? Weeks ago she had been at the top of her game. What could he possibly be talking about-?

Wait. She knew why. Of course. Now all the whisperings and heated looks from everyone made sense. The women had eyed her with jealous envy and the men with leering appreciation.

A distraction. Ok. She got it.

Because she had a brain and curves, she was being fired. The last week was simply the cherry to top it all off, to tip the balance into favouring the notion of firing her sorry butt.

Well, they wouldn't have anything to be jealous of now, would they? She had lost her best friend, her boyfriend, and now her job. She sincerely hoped they felt good about themselves because thanks to their stupid jealousy, she now felt even more pathetic than before.

Well, she knew when she got this occupation she wouldn't be working with the most respectable of people, but she definitely didn't expect this. What a surprise.

"Ok. I understand. I'll pack up my things and be out of here by noon." She realized her voice must have sounded dead because her boss gave her a sorry, sympathetic look before handing over her final pay check. She took it quickly and left the office, a numb feeling now growing in the pit of her stomach.

She had lost her job. The reason was ridiculous and aggravatingly stupid, but it didn't change the fact that she, Sakura Haruno, had been fired. Fired! That was a word she didn't want to ever hear again.

As she walked down the faded grey carpet towards her corner cubicle, she cringed in disgust as she felt the eyes of a "select few" employees eye her backside in earnest, now likely knowing it was their last chance to get a good eyeful and not feel the least bit guilty about it.

She finally made it to her own work space, a mixture of anger and hurt bubbling closely beneath her surface.

She wanted so badly to blame Ino and Hatori, because blaming your own problems on others was always a good way to make yourself feel better, but in this case, it wasn't even entirely their fault. Heck, it wasn't even her fault either! Next time she would just have to make sure she chose her friends and her job a little more carefully so she wouldn't be betrayed again by the people she trusted.

Tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes but she quickly forced them back. She would never give anyone the satisfaction of seeing her cry over her problems. She sure as hell was stronger than that!

Despite her sudden intense feelings, however, she hurt. Her heart was leaden in her chest and she felt that, by far, this was the lowest moment in her life.

* * *

A/N: ... You know, there's no excuse not to review this chapter... I may have let the last two chapters slip by, but not this one! I am officially fully impotent! (CandyLava: OMNIPOTENT!!!) ... Whatever, same thing! XP


	4. Dirty Bum Quota

A/N: Well, here's the infamous chapter four, a chapter 4, a chapter none of you have read yet... heh heh, the suspense is killing you, isn't it? X3 Well then? What're you waiting for? Go read already!

...

STOP READING THE A/N ALREADY!

* * *

"Ah, ahhh," she sucked in a deep breath. "Brain freeze."

Sakura Haruno was currently walking slowly down a cracked sidewalk downtown having just purchased a slurpee. Which she noted, was rapidly turning to watery yellow kool-aid in the blazing afternoon sun.

She had dropped off the few belongings she obtained from her office at her apartment already save for her small red purse, and decided to purchase some comfort food. And did she feel comforted? No not really. But the brain freeze certainly helped numb her mind and distract her from the fact that she was now jobless, friendless, boyfriendless, and basically just less altogether for that matter.

Not to mention it was extremely hard finding a decent well paying job in this city that didn't involve scrubbing toilets or cleaning floors. So, bitterly she remembered she would end up losing her apartment if she didn't start collecting some nice shiny coins.

She may even be forced to move back in with her parents. That simply, was not an option for a young, independent, albeit a not quite currently successful woman like herself.

She sighed in disgust realizing she had just remembered everything in her life she was currently trying to forget. At least the banana slurpee was good, although her caramel chocolate bar was now a melted mass of brown mush in her purse. She opened it anyways and dipped her finger in the smooth chocolate.

Closing her eyes, she smiled in delight. Still good too. The insistent aching of her heart faded to a dull thump, and she did indeed feel the makings of being comforted coming on. Chocolate really was the best comfort food.

She kept her eyes closed, better to enjoy the sweet sugary goodness, before a sudden sharp pain suddenly exploded in her abdomen. She choked on the smooth chocolate currently sliding down her throat and felt her self coughing and gasping for air as her back landed flat on the rocky pavement beneath her with an audible thump, winding her completely.

She had just managed to get out a hoarse 'ow' before a high pitched child's voice screamed an apology. Her eyes snapped open to witness three boys on skateboards rolling away fast down the street.

"I suppose that'll teach me not to stand around like a zombie in the middle of the sidewalk," she grunted.

Despite the pounding in her abdomen, she was still in a relatively good mood and was desperately trying to keep it that way. So when she stood up on shaky legs and glanced down at her current disheveled state, she was hard pressed not to scream, swear, and basically go crazy on everyone's staring ass.

Her yellow Slurpee, or what was left of it, was now soaked nicely in the crotch area of her skirt. In addition to that small catastrophe as if she hadn't suffered enough, her ooey, gooey, smooth caramel chocolate bar mostly liquid save for a few small chunks, was now smeared all over the front of her pale pink blouse. So basically, the conclusion that everyone would be drawing from her appearance would be that she had involuntarily pissed herself while throwing up the remains of the chocolate bar she had been recently seen snacking on. That chocolate bar which was now ironically, or perhaps just unluckily, now staining her favourite blouse.

"Great. Wow. Faaantastic! I suppose I was getting just a little too happy there for you wasn't I! Had to knock me down a peg right!?" the near hysterical pink haired woman shouted to no one in particular.

Sighing at everything, she tossed her Slurpee cup and chocolate bar wrapper in the trash before heading into the closest door she could find along that busy street in desperate search of a washroom, not caring anymore that people were looking at her as if she were some twenty year old going through her mid life crisis.

Twenty minutes later, she walked out of the washroom feeling slightly better. The stain on her skirt was barely noticeable, and she was able to erase most of the evidence that a melted chocolate bar had ever been smeared onto the front of her blouse.

Sakura was just preparing to leave the building when the faint sounds of singing floated into her ears. Not very good singing though she realized.

She stood undecided by the exit door before curiosity won out over her desire to get back to her apartment and change. She turned quickly on her heels and followed the sounds of music.

As she turned left and mounted some stairs, another female began crooning a love song. After listening to a few notes, Sakura concluded this one wasn't bad although she definitely wasn't much better than the first. Her voice was slightly off pitch and a little too monotone. No variation.

"Music tryouts perhaps? That would make sense," Sakura mumbled as she mounted yet another flight of stairs. The music was becoming louder and she could now make out the individual words being sung.

She stilled. She recognized these lyrics. These were songs from the band Forever of the Resentful! She gasped in sudden realization. Ino had mentioned that the lead singer Itachi Uchiha had broken off from the band. Meaning, of course, that F.o.R needed a new lead singer! And they were holding tryouts right now!

Sakura stood outside the door she assumed would lead to the stage where they were holding auditions. Her palms were clammy and her heart was pounding loudly in her chest. She could sing. At least, that's what everyone would always say when they heard her do karaoke.

"Please God let them have been telling the truth and not just saying I was good to be polite!"

She needed money, they needed a new lead singer. It would solve two problems at once.

And besides, it would be nice for her to do something crazy and spontaneous once in her lifetime instead of always being the straight laced braniac. And here was the perfect opportunity just knocking on her door.

Wiping her sweaty hands on the sides of her skirt, she pushed her hair behind her ears and drew in a deep shuddering breath before opening the door she hoped would lead to good fortune.

* * *

A/N: There, feel better? No? Well the next chapter should be put up soon enough!


	5. Children Corrupting Tarzan Ensembles

A/N: Okey dokey, this chapter is the marvelous appearance of... that's right, F.o.R!!!! Hope you like them, we did our best to give each of them different personalities from one another (but not unlike their personas in the actual anime)! Bon Appetite!

* * *

"Next!"

The single, harsh word bounced around the room in an even harsher echo, making everybody in the auditorium (besides the speaker, of course) wince painfully.

"Come on, Sasuke," Naruto chided with exhaustion, flashing the girl who was auditioning with a warm smile, before turning back to spear his band mate with a scowl. "She wasn't really all that bad, and this is our last stop. You have to stop turning everybody down."

"Tell that to Kakashi," the guitarist grumbled, "He's the one that keeps agreeing with me." He then turned to the girl and asked harshly, "Why are you still here? I told you to leave."

"Kakashi!" Naruto whined, leaning over the judges' tables to look at Forever of the Resentful's drummer/manager pleadingly. "Do something! Sasuke's ruining everything!"

"I'm sorry, Naruto," Kakashi apologized, steepling his fingers on the table. "But F.o.R. has a particular sound and--I'm sorry, what's your name again, Miss?"

"Yuna," the girl answered quietly, wringing her hands together with disappointment and self-consciousness. Any girl would feel that way after being subjected to this embarrassing torture.

"Right, Yuna just doesn't have that sound," the elder man finished. "She'd be much better in a… um… what is the word I'm looking for?"

"Dumpster?" Sasuke supplied dryly, propping his chin on a fist.

"No," Kakashi corrected firmly, spearing the Simon Cowell of the band with a warning glare, "Another genre, perhaps pop or country… definitely not rock."

"You heard the man," Sasuke snarled at the girl. "Now do us all a favour and go sing to somebody who has the time to listen to your rubbish!"

Biting her lower lip, tears welled in Yuna's eyes as she turned and fled, one of the cameramen trailing her step for step. Wouldn't want to miss out on the humiliation of yet another contestant being socially executed on international television…

"Do you _have _to be such a jerk?" Naruto asked on a sigh, massaging the bridge of his nose as he crossed out the name of Sasuke's latest victim. The fifth in an hour, actually.

"All I'm doing is ensuring that our band keeps up its image," Sasuke said, turning on one of the cameramen, who was moving in for the kill, and snapped, "Will you get your goddamn camera out of my face! God, you people are like bloody vultures!"

Naruto groaned loudly and Kakashi sighed as the fearful cameraman shuffled away nervously. This was how it had been for Forever of the Resentful ever since their lead singer, Uchiha Itachi, left to start a band of his own: Complete and utter chaos.

"Okay, who's next on the loser list?" Sasuke asked, resting his chin on his fist. "I want to get out of here."

"There _is _nobody else," Naruto answered coldly, "You turned them all down, remember?"

"Well then, I guess we go home," the guitarist replied lightly, actually daring to smile for once, "No Itachi, no band, no stress, right? Right!"

That's when the door leading from the outside of the auditorium onto the stage opened and spit out a rather dishevelled young woman. Her hair was a mess, her clothes wrinkled and stained. Her eyes bore red, raw bags underneath, giving the impression that she had been crying quite a bit, and her face pale and sickly.

"Uh, can we help you?" Kakashi asked formally, eying her with unveiled curiosity.

"I'm here to try out," the girl answered, holding her head high with pride, her hands clenched at his sides. It was obvious she was trying to pretend that her appearance was only the others' imaginations. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be working.

The three men sat in a baffled silence… well, at least until Sasuke (as usual) broke it. "Sorry, Miss, but Naruto fills our 'dirty bum' quota right to the top," he apologized sarcastically, smirking at his own not-so-funny humour.

"Sasuke!" Naruto hissed. "Will you shut up and let the girl sing already?"

"Um, how about… no! I'm tired, I'm hungry and my ears are on the verge of bleeding from all this filth! I am not about to play the nice guy for some girl with displacement issues!"

Naruto was about to wring Sasuke's neck when Kakashi said, "I'm terribly sorry for these two, they fight and bicker like an old married couple. What's your name?"

"Sakura."

"Sakura," he repeated thoughtfully. "Hm, pretty name. Well, Sakura, I'm afraid we just finished the auditions. If you wanted to try out, you should have signed up."

"In Kakashi-speak, that means get the hell out of here before we call security," Sasuke translated a little more rudely than necessary.

Naruto and Kakashi each cuffed Sasuke over the head, causing a delightful assortment of aggravated swears and curses from him.

"One tip if you get into the band, Sakura," the blond bass-player said with amusement, "Don't be surprised when you get a bad rep over Sasuke. Because he's a jerk, we're all basically guilty by association with him."

Sakura made an attempt smile half-heartedly.

"I may be a jerk, but at least I know talent when I see it," Sasuke stated bitterly, his voice thick with frustration, "And she is not it."

"Come on, she's cute enough," Naruto argued.

"She looks like she just climbed out of a dumpster, for Christ's sake!"

"Um, Guys, _she_ is right over there," Kakashi pointed out meaningfully, "You know, listening?"

The three looked to Sakura, her mouth set in a grim line, frustration creasing her brow. She was on the verge of tears and the others could see it loud and clear.

Sasuke sighed and relented, "Fine, let her sing for all I care. Just don't come whining to me that you got your hopes up when she sucks like all the rest, because I warned you."

Naruto and Kakashi could swear they saw a glint of challenge flash over Sakura's eyes, catching their interest.

"Alright, Sakura," Kakashi said, "The mic is all yours."

The pale pink-haired woman nodded her head in acquiescence and approached the mic stand. She gripped it desperately, her knuckles white from the exertion, and spread her feet shoulder-width apart…

"This should be good," Sasuke grumbled dryly, resting his head in his arms on the table.

… and belted it.

She sang, and sang, and sang until her lungs were on the verge of bursting, her face flushed purple and her eyes bulged dangerously from their sockets. When she finally broke, she let in a gasp of much needed oxygen and sank to her knees in an exhausted heap, panting desperately for air.

"…"

All three men (yes, even Sasuke), were speechless. What could they say to such… such… there were no words for this girl's heart-wrenching performance.

Standing wobbly to her feet, Sakura bit down on her lower lip anxiously until Naruto stood and exclaimed, "We've got our new lead singer!"

Both Sakura and Sasuke's jaws fell open with shock.

"You're kidding," Sasuke said incredulously, "Please tell me you're joking. She's a bum! She's a vagrant, a--"

"Uh, actually, I was a legal secretary," Sakura piped in. "This all happened because--"

"Who cares!" cried the blond, rushing onto the stage to pull his new band mate into a hug. "She's a star now! Welcome to F.o.R., Sakura-chan, our new sister! Whoo! I have a sister now!"

"Kakashi?" Sasuke asked shakily, his eyes pleading Kakashi to interfere with this, dash Naruto's hopes for a sister and send poor Sakura back to the dumpster where she came from.

"I think I'm siding with Naruto on this one, Sasuke," Kakashi stated. "This girl has the sound I was talking about before. Definitely F.o.R material."

"Majority rules!" Naruto whooped, throwing a fist into the air above his head.

"This is bullshit," Sasuke grumbled, standing and storming out of the auditorium, slamming the door shut behind himself. Frankly, it would be a lie to say that any of them missed him at that point.

"Don't pay any attention to him," the bass-player said, pulling her into yet another hug. "You're a star now!"

It was Kakashi's turn to stand and leave. "I'll go book the press conference now then, might as well get the formalities over with."

Finally breaking out of her shocked daze, Sakura furrowed her brow and asked, "P-Press conference?"

A/N: Okay... I hate to bring this up, but we got all of one review on the last chapter and, frankly, that's not very impressive. So, starting now (and, no, I have not consulted CandyLava on this yet, so you can get mad at me (Itachilova) for this all you want) if we don't start seeing just a FEW MORE reviews, we're just going to skip on to an all new story and not bother to update this one. So, please, if you like this story at all, PLEASE REVIEW!!!

:cough cough: Do I sound too desperate there?


	6. Coincidental Encounters?

I am extremely sorry for the slow updates, but this is my (Itachilova101) first long chapter... yes, this is long for me... and it took me a little while to write, edit and type. And, plus, some really weird shit has been going on... -.-" First, CandyLava was walking around and ran into a teacher that she and I had in grade two (yes, we've known each other that long) and she told me about it and we were saying that it'd be funny if she ran into her again... guess what happened. We ran into her again! Then, we ran into two other students that we had in our grade two class. Weird, right?

Well, enough with my rambles! Enjoy!

* * *

"Haruno-san," the stage manager, Haori, said, walking into Sakura's fresh, new dressing room. "It's time for make up."

Standing up, the new singer of F.o.R tugged at the hem of the flimsy skirt Kakashi had the stylists force onto her and smoothed down her top. Drawing in a deep breath and holding it, she followed Haori, who immediately handed her off to a new set of stylists to paint her face.

They pushed her into a rotating leather chair and quickly set to work.

"Your hair looks great, Saku-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, sitting in the chair beside her, somebody powdering his face.

"I agree," Kakashi added, sitting on her other side while one of the stylists adjusted the cloth covering his face, one of his own gimmicks so that the fans never knew what he looked like. "Short hair really becomes to people."

Sakura fingered her newly short hair self-consciously. She'd had long hair for the past five years and her scalp felt uncomfortably light without the newly missing three inches.

"We're on in five!" the assistant stage manager hollered, poking her head into the room, and then retreating.

"Don't be nervous, Saku-chan," Naruto told his new band-mate reassuringly, breaking in his new nickname for her. "Kakashi'll do most of the talking and then all you really have to do is smile, nod and answer some questions when the time comes."

Her nerves not quite eased, she nodded anyway and allowed her team of stylists to spin the chair to face the mirror so she could inspect her face. Looking at her reflection, it was like looking at an entirely different person. She saw a beautiful young woman who had faced many a challenge, but became stronger from it, wiser.

It was as though the loss of her boyfriend, her best friend and her job had terrorized her, set her ablaze in the flames of resent and anguish. Then, just when she thought it was all over, she was reborn from the ashes, a gorgeous person with the potential to be confident, to be great.

"Places!" Haori shouted, "Places, everyone!"

"Showtime!" Naruto whispered dramatically, and then took her hand, as if offering her his confidence.

Kakashi placed a comforting hand on her shoulder from behind, Sasuke walking at her other side, a martyred expression on his face telling her he hadn't a choice in the matter.

When they reached the right entrance onto the stage, Kakashi gently squeezed her shoulder, signaling her to stop. She stopped along with the others and waited for their cue to head out.

Sakura could hear the constant hum of chattering voices and, judging by the amount of noise, guessed that the audience was packed full with curious people and reporters, wanting the first look at the new Forever of the Resentful singer.

"Okay," Haori hollered, appearing in front of the band. "We're on in five… four…" she counted down the last three numbers silently with her fingers, and then rushed out of the group's way.

As soon as the reached the stage, a barrage of lights started flashing and people began shouting unintelligible questions that couldn't be understood because of the sheer amount of them at once.

Kakashi pulled out a chair and gently pushed Sakura into it before the three men took their own seats on either side of her. Her eyes blinded by the constant lights, Sakura could only blink dazedly, trying to catch a glimpse of her audience.

Then, a reassuring voice, "Ladies and gentleman, reporters and fans alike, it is with the utmost pride and happiness that I introduce to you," Kakashi said, his voice registering through the quieting voices as lights receded. "Forever of the Resentful's new lead vocalist, Haruno Sakura."

At the introduction, the crowd burst into applause and another round of rapid picture-taking, once again rendering Sakura blind. The afore-mentioned girl had to check herself to keep from looking as afraid and confused as she felt.

"Don't look them straight on," Naruto advised her in hushed tones, "Face them, but keep you eyes focused on one spot over their heads. It'll fight off the blindness."

Nodding and putting the advice to use, she found herself-not-so-blind and she could now smile without worrying about whether she looked retarded or not.

"We are currently prepared to take any questions you may have, but we ask that you hold off the picture-taking until the end of this conference.

The blinding lights finally receded once again and Sakura sighed in relief. Note to self: Hug Kakashi later!

"Sakura-san!" somebody shouted, pulling her attention to the shouting group before her, "How did you react when you found out you were going to become a part of the internationally acclaimed band, F.o.R?"

Clearing her throat, she answered, "Well, I was too shocked to react, actually. I'm pretty sure I forgot how to breathe."

The crowd laughed and threw themselves into their questions, most of them about how the band and Sakura were getting along with one another and about the former singer, Uchiha Itachi.

"Sasuke, how do feel about the loss of your former singer and Sakura's appearance?"

"Naruto, how are you coping with the change?"

"Kakashi, what are your thoughts on the war between the US and Iraq? Which side would you take?"

Then, the doors leading outside the auditorium were thrown open and a convulsing man started running down the middle aisle, shouting, "Down with rock-and-roll! Stop corrupting our children with your heathen music!" The protester was making a beeline straight for Sakura and she was too shell-shocked to do anything about it.

Then, a figure so quick it was just a blur--or maybe her mind had just switched to super-slow motion mode--, appeared before her and pushed her to the ground.

"Hey!"

"What that--?"

"What are you doing here?!"

"Sakura, are you alright?"

Somebody grabbed her arm and pulled her upright. Looking down at herself, she found that her skirt, which had snagged on her chair, was now no more than a scanty loin cloth.

"Shit!" Naruto cursed, pulling off his jacket to wrap it around her waist, and then handed her over to the stage manager.

Taking one last look over her shoulder at her attacker, she saw the man against the ground, several security men surrounding him, keeping him pinned and barking orders into their headsets.

She was led backstage, her mind so dazed that she barely even noticed her supposed savior walking alongside her, his hand holding her arm just above her elbow in a protective sort of way.

"Don't worry, Haruno-san," Haori was saying, "These things happen from time to time."

Sakura was led to her dressing room where Haori left her with the man she hadn't even thought to look at, let alone thank. Finally shaking herself out of her daze, she looked up at her rescuer and then froze.

His hair was a glossy raven black, tied back into a loose ponytail at the nape of his neck, his mouth set in a grim line and his gorgeously toned arms now relinquishing their hold on her and folding over his equally toned chest.

What caught her off guard, however, were his eyes, a crimson red, thanks to a pair of nonprescription contact lenses that had been custom made for none other than Uchiha Itachi.

She remembered Ino gushing about how hot the man was and how striking the red eyes made him and she had to admit that her former best friend had been right. He was gorgeous and the contact lenses only helped to further his beauty.

She winced at the memory, the wounds of her betrayal still raw.

"Do you plan on standing there, gaping, or are you going to change?"

Pulling herself out of the hundredth reverie that day, Sakura mumbled, her eyes locked on his, "You're…"

"Itachi!" Sasuke barked, unveiled hatred coating his words, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Howdy, brother," replied her savior dryly. "Nice to see you, too."

"Brother?" Sakura asked, shocked at the realization.

Kakashi rushed onto the scene, followed by Naruto, and he turned stiffly toward Itachi. "Thank you for your assistance, Itachi, I'll take it from here."

Nodding, the man locked eyes with Sakura once more, some hidden meaning behind the gaze… it seemed foreboding, like he was telling her to be careful, and then he took his leave with neither a parting word nor a backward glance.

"Wait, he… and I… you guys--brother?" she stammered, looking at each of her band-mates for an explanation, the adrenalin from her attack finally catching up with her.

"Well, duh," answered Sasuke, "We have the same last name."

"I figured you guys were, like, distant cousins or something!" she exclaimed, "Or it was just a coincidence… or another gimmick… or something."

"Unfortunately, no."

"I wonder what he was doing here," Kakashi said thoughtfully, "And why he bothered to save his replacement."

"Speaking of which," Sasuke added, eyeing Sakura tiredly, "That Tarzan ensemble is a little overdone, don't you think?"

Throwing a snarl his way, she walked into her dressing room to change, slamming the door shut behind herself.

* * *

Because of the press conference's premature ending and, in light of Sakura's quaking nerves, Kakashi and Naruto took her to Tim Horton's for a low-profile discussion of what would be expected of her now that she'd been introduced to the public.

"Okay," Kakashi said, nursing his coffee, "Three days ago, you were accepted into the band. I know it's a little late to be asking this, but now that you've had a taste of celebrity life, have you had any second thoughts?"

"Nope," she lied.

Correction, she'd had second thoughts since the moment she'd walked out of the auditorium a singer.

Naruto smiled, stirring his Iced Capp with his straw. "Good girl."

Pulling out a CD case, Kakashi placed it on the table before her and said, "This is our latest album, Forever Resentful, not as good as our earlier ones, considering Itachi was experiencing his falling out, but we intend to fix that."

"Oh?" Sakura asked, "How so?"

Kakashi sighed, staring into his coffee and explained, "Itachi's abandonment of us couldn't have come at a worse time. You see, we've been named one of the top four rock bands in the country, along with Itachi's new band, Sub-Zero Solution and two others. Our earned fame and their rapid rise to popularity have caused some stir in the rock world, so we've been drafted into a contest."

A few people walked into the restaurant and Sakura watched as both Naruto and Kakashi donned a pair of overlarge sunglasses, a ball cap and pulled up the hoods of their sweaters.

"Put these on," Naruto told her, handing her a spare pair of shades and a hat.

Quickly doing as told, she threw on the shades and hat and pulled up the hood of her own sweater.

"Contest?" she asked, "What sort of contest?"

"Sort of like how wrestlers have the heavyweight championship of the world," Naruto answered.

"Battle of the Bands, if you will," Kakashi chipped in. "Televised worldwide, the four bands--Sonic Incline, Dream Theory, Sub-Zero Solution, and us, Forever of the Resentful--will compete for the title of Japan's greatest rock band."

"So… my first concert is going to be a high-stakes competition that will either make or break or reputation as a band?" Sakura asked softly.

"No pressure, though," Naruto replied dryly.

"We have nothing but the utmost confidence in your abilities as a singer, Sakura," Kakashi assured her, placing a comforting hand over hers.

"Except Sasuke," she grumbled bitterly, recalling all the times he'd either acted like a complete jerk toward her or ignored her completely in the past three days.

"He's always that way," Kakashi assured her, "He's only directing it toward you because he's feeling slighted by Itachi's fame. They've never gotten along, almost causing the band to break up completely on several occasions, and Itachi's betrayal has only furthered their tense relations. He'll come around."

Sakura drew in a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. Time for the ultimate commitment. "Alright, I'm in. What do I have to do?"

"Listen to that CD," Kakashi instructed, memorize every song, and learn every word. I'll have a vocal instructor help you with your voice."

She was just about to speak when she heard a whoosh of air rushing in and looked in the direction of the door to find none other than Uchiha Itachi and a tall, pale man with the build of a professional wrestler.

The Uchiha's eyes connected with her own and he got the most curious look on his face.

Is that… relief on his face?

As soon as the look appeared, however, it melted back into the indifferent look he was most famous for in the magazines and television.

He whispered something into muscle-man's ear and the man looked in her direction, nodded, and lumbered toward the restaurant counter to place his order.

Though Itachi's face betrayed no emotion, his eyes were a different story. They conveyed clearly the emotions he felt as he pulled up a chair and sat down at the table uninvited.

Kakashi eyes the traitor Uchiha with slight disgruntlement, while Naruto looked outright put out at the thought of sitting so close to his former band-mate.

"My, why the long faces, friends?" Itachi asked sarcasm dripping from his tongue as he allowed a smirk to form over his mouth.

* * *

An: Itachi has appeared! X3 :Dies of happiness: ... KIDDING!!! XP


	7. Pretty Pink Underthings

Forever Resentful

LavaLova

Chapter 7

A/N: She's ALIVE!!! Bwahahahahahahaha-- :choke: … hairball n.n; Anyway, yes, we are alive… or, at least, I am… It would seem that, as diplomas are coming up, CandyLava is devoting her time to studying and her future and stuff like that. Actually, I would be doing the same thing, but, as we all know, I'm a genius and I don't need to study.

So, though it is kind of sucky, I will be continuing the rest of this story on my own, which explains why it took so long for me to update, because we'd been procrastinating and all that wonderful stuff.

However! CandyLava has graciously agreed to continue posting up the chapters I write as I email them… because the internet (that my dad broke) has not been replaced yet. So, let's all give good ol' CandyLava a huge round of applause! :huge, random, happy applause:

Well, without any further adieu, here's chapter seven!---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sitting at one of the coffee shop's tables uninvited, Itachi propped his chin on the back of one hand as his eyes bored holes into Naruto's and Kakashi's heads and all Sakura could do was sip her Iced Capp Supreme, watching and feeling very, very uncomfortable. The way her two band-mates' attitudes had changed the moment the ex-F.o.R singer had invited himself over baffled her, made her wonder just what the hidden story was behind this band.

The sound of Naruto grinding his teeth broke the tense silence, his cerulean eyes matching the Uchiha's challengingly. He seemed to be making up for Kakashi who was looking everywhere but the Uchiha's way, as though hoping that, if he didn't see Itachi, he wasn't there.

Then, the singer turned his intense gaze over to Sakura, his unnaturally red eyes dark and suddenly unreadable. "It's good to see that you're going to live corrupt our children with your 'heathen music'."

Was that sincere or sarcastic? she wondered briefly before she bit her lip, suddenly self-conscious under the man's powerful gaze, and murmured, "Um… thanks."

"Do you have a reason for bothering us," Naruto asked icily, sneering at the black-haired vocalist, "Or are you only here to flaunt your B-grade wit?"

"Actually," Itachi answered, returning his attention to the blond, "I do have a reason for joining you. My colleague and I were merely curious as to what your plans are pertaining to this whole Battle-of-the-Bands business."

"What business is that of yours?" Kakashi queried, obviously overcoming his denial with curiosity and indignity. "Shouldn't you and your colleague be more concerned with your own plans for the contest?"

Itachi shrugged. "Perhaps, but all of us in Sub-Zero Solution and any of the other bands involved are experienced musicians while you are recruiting amateurs whom only joined your band on a very misfortunate whim. Compared to you, we all have a leg up." Sakura was easily able to notice that he was watching her from the corner of his eye.

Naruto stood so abruptly his chair nearly toppled over, his hands balled into fists, his lips pulled back into a hateful snarl that showed all his teeth and his nostrils flared. His blue eyes blazed furiously and it was obvious that, unless somebody intervened, the man was going to attack Itachi right there in the middle of the restaurant.

Fortunately, Kakashi managed to grab Naruto by an arm and tug him back into his chair before a commotion was stirred. He whispered something in the blond's ear and he nodded, looking a little more relaxed.

Nonetheless, while any other patrons of the coffee shop were oblivious to it, the four musicians could feel the electricity in the air; could hear the faint humming of the silence in their ears; could taste the harsh, unspoken words like venom on their tongues. The air was suddenly unbearably tense.

Finally, as though on cue, the large, pale man who had accompanied Itachi into the restaurant earlier approached the table to break the silence, the two extra large paper cups he was holding seeming lost in his bulky hands.

"Friends," the Uchiha said sardonically, an artificial smile on his pale face while the man placed one of the coffees before him, "Meet Sub-Zero Solution's drummer, Hoshigaki Kisame. Kisame, these are my--" he paused to chuckle only for the benefit of setting Naruto off, "These are my former band-mates."

Kisame grunted a curt greeting and told Itachi, "We have to go meet the guys at the studio in twenty minutes."

"Mmm, that's right," the Uchiha agreed with a nod of recollection, "Alright, well, I guess I'll be seeing you around." Although the statement had probably been meant for the whole, he had directed his words to Sakura as he stood, taking his coffee with him. "So long."

And with that, the two were gone as quickly and unexpectedly as they had appeared, leaving the three left behind in a very uncomfortable, very volatile silence.

Well, Sakura thought dryly, I think that went rather well.

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"Though I hate to admit it," Kakashi said later on that same day, "Itachi had a point: Sakura is inexperienced. Besides the press conference today, she has no idea about the crowds, the fans, or the pressure. She'd probably just end up wiping out in the middle of a song when she gets spooked by the crowds… no offense."

"None taken," Sakura replied, only half-listening to her band-mates over F.o.R's latest CD Naruto and Kakashi had given her to get a feel for the band's songs. Ever since leaving the coffee shop, she had focused on dedicating her time to making herself the best damn singer she could be. She would show Itachi who was an amateur.

"And what do you propose we do about it?" Sasuke asked tersely, in a particularly bad mood because of the news of Itachi's reappearance in the shop and the thing he'd had to say.

"We can have her practice in a few mini performances," the bass player and manager answered, "Start her off small, a couple cafes, restaurants, little places like that. Work her up to the screaming fans, the endless crowds and whatnot."

"But the contest is in a month," Naruto stated, "Do we have time to work her up to full-blown concerts?"

"I can call in a few favors," Kakashi answered, "I have a few friends with contacts that can pull a few strings. In the least, we can book ourselves for all of next weeks and, if we're lucky, maybe even the week after that."

"Will she know the songs well enough by then to be able to perform next week?" the blond drummer queried.

"That's what covers are for," Sasuke answered with a weary sigh before turning to Kakashi to say, "Do it."

Kakashi nodded. "I'll make some calls first thing in the morning. Until we have a gig, though, Sakura, practice these songs so that we can at least do a few, but also make a list of covers that you'd like to do."

"I hate covers," Naruto grumbled.

"Too bad," Sasuke replied impatiently.

"I can do that," Sakura replied on a yawn.

"Well, then," Naruto concluded, still not looking very happy at the idea of ripping off somebody else's songs, "You must be exhausted, Saku-chan, I'll have a car drop you off at home."

"Uh… actually, I was kind of thinking that I need to make a couple stops before I go home, so the ride isn't necessary."

"My driver could take you wherever you need to go."

Sakura sighed tiredly and clarified, "It's been a long day, I would really like to just have some time to be alone and think. Have some fresh air and just… well, think."

"Well…" Naruto said uncertainly, "I guess, if you're sure, you could go alone."

"I am," she said firmly and stood, stretching her tired muscles. She took the copy of F.o.R's CD and gave Naruto a quick hug, shook hands with Kakashi, nodded at Sasuke and took her leave.

Although the unseasonal snow that had fallen only a couple of weeks earlier had long since melted, the air was still oddly crisp when she left the hotel and, being that it was nighttime, it was cooler still. But Sakura enjoyed it.

She had rarely been left alone the past few days, Kakashi wanting to go over the never-ending terms of her contract and Naruto wanting to introduce her to all of his superstar friends (she had so far chatted over the phone with any famous person from BoA Kwon and Gackt Camui). So, at that moment, she really needed some time to relax and enjoy the silence.

Not long after, she was out of the rich neighborhood and was entering her own average, middle-class part of town and she decided that she really did need to make a quick pit stop. She took a quick turn and headed into a 24-hour convenience store for a few things she knew she might need.

The door opened almost immediately after it had closed behind her, but she paid no attention to whoever had come in here. The person was most likely only there to shop, also, she figured as she made a beeline straight for the junk food aisle.

She grabbed a few of her favorite brand of chocolate bar and a bottle of pop before making her way to the essentials aisle to take a look at their tampon selection.

Observing the prices, she felt lucky that she had bought all those shares of her family's company as that, if worst came to worst (which it had), she definitely wouldn't be well-off until she started getting regular paychecks again, but she would at least have some money.

She grabbed a couple boxes of the cheapest ones and placed them in the basket she had grabbed. Then, she turned to make her way to the check-out counter, but wound up running into a male chest instead. She squeaked in surprise, losing her balance momentarily, the man she'd run into grabbing her arms to keep her steady.

Unfortunately, the basket fell from its perch in the crook of her arm and all its contents spilled onto the floor for all to see. Sakura didn't notice, however. She was far too busy looking into the cold, unreadable and very familiar eyes of Uchiha Itachi.

"Haruno Sakura… what a coincidence."

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A/N: In case some of you don't know, yes, BoA Kwon and Gackt Camui are real Japanese singers and two of my favorites… though I have lots more faves beside them. Anyway, luvvles and huggles! And, the next chapter is written out, so all I have to do is type it, email it and get CandyLava to post it and it'll be posted! Bai-bai!

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	8. Breakfast With the Enemy

A/N: Hello! Guess what! Too late, I'm gonna tell you... I've got internet! So, updates are going to be much quicker... you can thank my sister for moving back home. n.n

* * *

"Haruno Sakura," the name rolled off the man's tongue with an underlying tone of amusement, "What a coincidence."

"Uh…" She was still trying to overcome the shock he'd sent jolting through her body the moment he'd touched her and, until that happened, she was unable to comprehend spoke words. "U-Um…"

Then, those stunning eyes of his left her face to look at the things she'd so clumsily dropped and she found her eyes following.. Itachi stooped down to put the chocolate bars and pop back into the basket then paused when he found the tampons. It was his turn to utter an, "Uh…"

She inwardly groaned and quickly ducked down, scooped up the boxes, snatched the basket away from the man and made her escape toward the counter.

"That'll be sixteen-eighty-three, please," the female cashier said and Sakura grabbed her wallet to pay.

When she looked inside, however, all she found was a ten dollar bill and a written reminder to go ask her parents for some money for tampons… how had she forgotten that?! Sighing impatiently, she looked over all the things on the counter and wondered what she was going to have to return.

Just before she was about to return one of the boxes of tampons, she saw a hand appear beside her, holding a twenty dollar bill.. This time she outwardly groaned when she saw that the body the arm was attached to belonged to none other than Uchiha Itachi.

God, this was embarrassing…

The cashier smiled at Itachi, ringed it in and gave him the few dollars' change before bagging the items. She shoved the bag at Sakura and said to Itachi, "Have a good night, Sir."

He nodded his reply and took the bag from Sakura, heading for the door to leave the store.

"Hey!" Sakura exclaimed, whirling around to chase after the man, "What the hell do you think you're--"

"It's called being gallant," Itachi interrupted calmly as he walked down the sidewalk. "It's dark; we're in a seedy part of town and your face and panties having been plastered all over international television, I'm walking you home to make sure you don't get mugged."

"But--"

"Where do you live?"

"You know, men aren't usually very 'gallant nowadays," she commented instead of answering his question, "I don't think that term is even relevant anymore. I'm pretty sure it's only used in corny romance movies now."

"Shall I just put these items on EBay for being touched by _the_ Haruno Sakura then?"

She grit her teeth and grumbled her address so that Itachi could walk her to her apartment and then leave her in peace. She could just go without telling Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi about this little encounter when she spoke with them the next day.

"I suppose your band-mates are trying to brainwash you into thinking I'm evil incarnate," he said suddenly, looking over his shoulder at her.

"No, not really, actually… they prefer not to speak of you at all."

"Hm," he grunted, "Then I suppose it's safe to assume that your hostility toward me is your own?"

"Who says I'm hostile?"

"You're glaring into the back of my head," he answered lightly, "So, you either see something very disturbing there or you simply hate me. Quite frankly, my money's on the latter."

Okay, yeah, she supposed she might have had some hostility toward him, but she wasn't quite sure why. Although when he was around the rest of F.o.R his politeness and friendliness was obviously sarcastic; when they were gone, he was a decent guy. He was being genuinely polite and even though he seemed a tad soft-spoken (and when he did speak, it was a tad on the old-fashioned side) he wasn't going out of his way to be rude.

And, yes, okay, he _was_ totally hot. She wondered what he looked like without the contacts in his eyes. What color were his eyes? And she also wondered what he looked like… naked.

She shuddered as a vision of Ino straddling Hatori popped into her mind. Nope, no way, nuh-uh! She was not going to be attracted to Uchiha Itachi. She was not going to stumble into another relationship like she'd done with Hatori. She'd been there, done that and she had the scars to prove it.

"Here we are," Itachi announced, pulling Sakura out of her reverie to look at her apartment building.

They now stood at the edge of the empty road, staring up at the building and she let herself exhale on a rush of air. Not a moment too soon. "Well," she said softly, "Thank you for the _gallant_ escort. I'm, um… I'm just going to head inside now, so… will you be okay getting to your home this late?"

He only gave her a grin that looked _way_ too suspicious and answered in an equally suspicious manner, "I'll manage."

She blinked in confusion, but nodded quickly, took the bag he offered and offered him a hand to shake in return. "Maybe we'll see each other again?" Although she said it with a very sincere tone of voice, her mind was screaming, _No! Never again! Never, ever, ever! _

He shook her hand and nodded. "I wouldn't doubt it.

_Crap… _She turned and headed to the door to get to the locked one that led to the foyer.

She noticed, much to her annoyance, when somebody joined her in the little space between the two doors and she reluctantly turned to see a very amused Itachi standing there. He hand one hand raised between them, palm up and a key ring dangling from his forefinger. On it was a single key.

Sakura blinked and looked down at the key in her hand to find an exact copy of the one Itachi held. But, if he had a key to the apartment, didn't that mean…? "You don't live here… do you?"

The Uchiha's smirk grew as he answered, "Just moved in today. Quite a coincidence, huh?"

This wasn't a coincidence; this was harassment!

She was about to voice this opinion when Itachi cleared his throat and queried, "Shall we head inside? I don't know about you, but I've had a long, trying day and I would like some sleep."

Gritting her teeth, she unlocked and opened the door, headed for the stairs and once again cursed her rotten luck when the Uchiha followed.

It was, technically, a two storey building: one floor of apartments underground; another on the main floor; and one more on the second floor. So, if he was following her upstairs, he must live on the same floor as her. Just peachy…

Why did that crotchety old Mrs. Shibuya have to move out? Why did Itachi have to take her place? These weren't coincidences, they were ambushes; evil, nasty; cold-hearted ambushes.

"Night-night, Sakura," Itachi said, walking to the door to his suite and unlocked it, walked inside and shut the door.

Sighing in irritation, she went into her own apartment and slammed the door shut. She was exhausted. Although it hadn't been more than eight hours ago, the memory of her attacker and Itachi's rescue seemed so long ago. It felt like it had been forever.

She made her way to her room, stripping on the way. By the time she was in her room, she was down to her underthings and fell into her bed.

Her warm, soft, wonderful bed. She could just curl up and sleep forever. She would have seriously contemplated doing so if it weren't for the fact that she was dead asleep before she had a chance.

* * *

Sakura awoke to the sound of somebody buzzing her apartment and sleepily got out of bed and put on her robe before heading out of her room. "What?" was her answer to the incessant buzzing.

"Hey there, Superstar," Naruto greeted cheerfully… far too cheerfully for this early in the day. "Feel like a little room service? We've got foo-oood!" He sang the last bit.

Sighing tiredly, she pressed the button to let the man in and threw open the apartment door to find Itachi in his own doorway… in his boxers.

Her jaw fell open and she saw his do the same. She looked down at herself, finally noticing that she had failed to tie her robe shut. Her pretty pink underthings were showing.

_Oh… dear… Lord…_

The door to the stairwell was thrown open and Naruto strutted into the hall, followed by a less exuberant Sasuke and Kakashi. Of course, nobody in the area looked all too pleased as they took in the scene before them.

"Uh…" Kakashi stammered.

"You have got to be _kidding_ me," Sasuke snapped.

"Um, Saku-chan?" Naruto said softly, "Please tell me that you didn't sleep with Itachi."  
"Urrgh!" Sakura exclaimed in both frustration and embarrassment, storming back into her apartment and slamming the door shut.

Was she _ever_ going to get a break?

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A/N: I want to thank everybody who has reviewed so far and, since I now have internet, starting with this chapter, I'm going to reply to every review I get! I used to with my stories on my own account, but haven't been able to (I think I'm getting a bit redundant here)... well, ja ne till next chapter! :Kissus:


	9. Suddenly Suspicious

A/N: Told you I'd update quickly!

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"Saku-chan?" Naruto hollered as he pounded on the apartment door, "Can you open the door now? Your breakfast is kind of getting cold, you know." When Sakura didn't answer, preferring the idea of never being seen or heard again much more, the blond asked, "Well, will you at least make some noise to let us know your alive?"

She threw one of the slippers she'd retrieved upon isolating herself at the door.

"Thanks, Saku-chan!"

"Perhaps I should try," Kakashi suggested, "Sakura? You don't have to open the door right now if you don't want to, but will you at least speak to us?"

She threw her other slipper at the door.

"I think that means no," Naruto stated.

"Startling observation, Dobe," Sasuke replied dryly, "Your powers of observation continue to astound me; however did you deduce such a conclusion?"

"Shut up, Teme!"

"Guys, you're not helping anything by arguing," Kakashi interrupted the argument before speaking through the door once again, "We just wanted to tell you that we dealt with getting you a voice coach and we've got a few gigs lined up for next week... if you're willing to open the door before then."

"Yeah, "Naruto added cheerily, "And you're gonna totally blow everybody away with your voice, Saku-chan! Say something, Teme."

Sasuke merely grunted.

"You call that saying something?!"

Sakura heard Kakashi groan and she almost smiled. Not quite enough to make her want to open the door, though.

"Well," Naruto carried on instead of delving further into an argument with Sasuke, "Itachi told us about how he's living here now and that you two didn't sleep together, so... oh, come _on_, Saku-chan! Just come to the bloody door already! Your breakfast is going to go bad!"

Now she fully smiled, but still didn't go to the door. She was very much enjoying the blond's feeble attempts at getting her to talk to him. Naw, she'd draw it out a little longer.

"Why don't you just leave the food here," Itachi's voice suggested casually, "I'll make sure she gets it before it spoils."

"Yeah, right!" Naruto scoffed bitterly, "There is absolutely no way I am leaving her alone with a teme like you! No way, no how!"

"... I thought Sasuke was the teme," Itachi commented with some amusement t Naruto's expense in his voice. "Are you so unimaginative that you can't come up with something else?"

"Say what you want, but I'm not leaving!"

"Hey, Naruto," Kakashi said, "Aren't you late for your hair appointment?"

"Oh, shit!" Naruto cursed, "Gotta go... bye, Saku-chan!" And, just like that, all the voices outside the door were gone and Sakura relaxed back into the couch with a relieved sigh. Peace...

_Knock... knock... knock... _Or maybe not.

"Who is it?" she hollered impatiently from the couch, angry at having her peace interrupted once again. "And can it wait? I am not in the mood for more misunderstandings over who my lover is."

"Room service," came the stiff reply from Itachi, "You know, the room service that actually has some inkling of sanity? You might want to come claim this breakfast before I do... it looks like Naruto is trying to spoil you."

With a weary sigh, Sakura finally got up from the couch and opened the apartment door to find a fully clothed Itachi standing in her doorway, holding a platter of eggs, bacon, hash browns, sausages, half a grapefruit, a couple slices of toast and a plastic bottle of orange juice. Finally noticing her hunger, her mouth watered at the delectable smells wafting toward her.

But, looking at all of it, she knew that she couldn't possible stomach eating all of the fat and grease smothered all over the food... at least, not by herself. She looked to Itachi's vaguely amused face and quirked a brow. "Care to join me, Mr. Room Service?"

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth and she stepped out of the way so that he could come in. He walked into the apartment and kicked the door shut with his foot as she left to get a couple plates, glasses and silverware. "So," she struck a conversation while she came back into the living room, "I didn't know we had so many famous people living in this city."

Itachi shrugged as he took the utensils and things Sakura handed him, "It's a big city, so we can easily blend in with the crowds. Besides, when I saw on that ridiculous reality television that F.o.R had found their new singer, I became curious and wanted to investigate. So I moved over here."

"Into the same apartment building as me," she added dryly.

He shrugged again. "That's the thing about coincidences, they're pretty damn eerie."

"Oh, it's eerie, alright."

He chuckled and sat back with the plate he'd just finished filling with food from the platter. "How cute; you suspect me of stalking you... but I think you're forgetting that I moved in here yesterday morning, before I had ever met you."

"But you had seen me on TV... and you were curious," she pointed out, "Stalking is a bad word... more like making yourself close to your... your competition."

Itachi smirked. "Even you can't believe that. Like I said, coincidences are eerie, but only because that's what they are: coincidences. There was no intention of my bringing myself closer to you and, if there was, what would the reasons be?"

"I don't know, what _would_ they be?" she asked pointedly.

His smirk grew. "Really, Sakura? You expect a confession from me?" He chuckled and asked instead of answering her question, "Why don't you tell me why you asked me to have breakfast with you? To be nice? To get a confession? I think it's neither."

Sakura felt her cheeks heat up as she commented, "You're suddenly very talkative."

"Do you want to know what I think your reason for having breakfast with 'the enemy' is?" he asked, pretending as though she had never opened her mouth.

She stayed silent, waiting for his answer. She knew that he didn't really care whether she wanted to know or not either way and so just sat back and waited.

"You like me."

Her eyes practically fell out of their sockets and she almost swallowed her tongue. "You're... you're joking, right? Please tell me you're joking..." By the look on his face, his brow quirked and a half-smirk, she could tell that he was, in fact, joking... but her face decided to go all hot anyway.

Then, he chuckled again and asked, "Perhaps you do like me after all... interesting. That's going to make our... position a little tough."

"Position?" she asked, "Tough?" Then, she belatedly stated, "And I don't like you!"

He shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat." He set down his empty plate and stood. "Thanks for the meal, Haruno, I guess I'll see you at your first performance. Later." And then he was gone, closing the door behind himself.

"No, you won't!" she yelled at the closed door, and then, when she heard the door to her own apartment close, she growled, "Yes, he will." For added effect (or just to try and convince herself), she grumbled to herself, "I hate him..."

But she didn't really, though.

* * *

A/N: Hope you like it!


	10. Worst Betrayal Yet

A/N: Well, here's chapter 10! Definitely not as funny as the other ones, but I guess that it'll have to do. It does have the beginnings of the real conflict in it, though, and you can start to suspect that something doesn't smell right and the stench isn't coming from Itachi.

The song, "Wish I Had An Angel" by Nightwish, that is mentioned is not mine (duh, I said it's from Nightwish) was brought to my attention by The Blood Thirsty Sliver Wolf and so all praise for its sheer perfectness goes to her.

When the men returned, it was to see if Sakura was still refusing to talk to them. Of course, her shock and outrage at Itachi's audacity to claim that she had any positive and/or flattering feelings for him had definitely nullified her frustration at her fellow band-mates and so she allowed them inside without complaint.

"Your first performance is going to be at a wedding," Kakashi stated upon entering, "Odd, I know, but it was the best we could get on such short notice. Besides, if we do well, there will be plenty of people to root for us during the competition and it is mostly decided by the fan vote."

"Whose wedding are we doing?" she asked, "Did you get the couple's names?"

"Some guy--Hatori or something like that--with some chick named Ino," Sasuke answered with no hint of even pretending to look interested.

Sakura froze in the motion of bringing a cup to her lips and felt the entire world stop. Hatori and Ino? They were getting married? How could that be? No way, they wouldn't... there was no way that they would... how could they forget her so fast? Had she really meant so little to Hatori? Had Ino's and her close friendship been all in her head? She hated to think about it, but it was possible, wasn't it? Yes, it was very possible... and, if they were getting married and she was singing there... well... couldn't she at least pretend that she felt the same way?

A smirk claimed her lips as her grip on the cup she was holding slackened and it fell onto the carpeted floor with a little thud that she hadn't noticed. She ignored Naruto's inquiries on whether she was okay and she did the same when Kakashi dabbed at the water soaking into the carpet. "I have the perfect song to sing at their wedding," she stated with a chuckle.

Kakashi blinked, kneeling before her and, without his usual mask (he hated wearing it unless they were in public), the surprise was evident on his face. "You... do?"

She nodded. "I'd heard it on satellite radio. It's sung in English, but the band's Finnish or German or something... I'm sure I could get some lyrics in Japanese somewhere online." She went to her computer and typed in the song's name. "Ah! Here we go, Wish I Had An Angel by Nightwish."

Kakashi approached her and read a few lines, then said, "Um... this doesn't seem very appropriate for a wedding, Sakura."

"It's perfect," she corrected darkly, smirking in satisfaction. It was perfect... well, for her, anyway.

" 'Greatest thrill, Not to kill/But to have the prize of the night/Hypocrite, Wannabe friend/13th disciple who betrayed me for nothing'" Kakashi quoted the one verse that spoke true of her experiences and would bring her the satisfaction of ruining her arch-enemies' wedding, "That's a little... morbid to sing at a wedding."

"It's perfect," she repeated.

"I like it," Sasuke commented and Sakura turned to see the Uchiha smirking. "It's the perfect song for Forever of the Resentful to sing... what could be more resentful than a woman singing of betrayal on a couple's wedding night?"

Sakura made a mental note to rethink her impression of the bastard... perhaps he could be downgraded to asshole... maybe. She'd have to think... a lot.

Kakashi still looked displeased with the idea. He obviously didn't think they'd get very many fans by singing this song. "Well..."

"Then we won't do the wedding!" Sakura exclaimed with a shrug. It would suck not to get her revenge, but she wouldn't be grief-stricken to not see her ex-boyfriend and ex-friend again. But, if she was doing the wedding, she was not going to do any lovey-dovey songs... that would strike her with grief... and lots of it.

"No!" Naruto and Kakashi snapped in unison, their eyes wide, looking as though they'd just seen her get hit by a bus and stand up perfectly fine afterward. Kakashi added, stammering over the words, "I-I mean... well... we already promised to do the wedding. There'll be huge consequences if we back out now."

"Huge consequences," Naruto added, a little red-faced.

_They're hiding something, _she thought suspiciously, quirking a brow at the two men, then turning to Sasuke to see the same look of confused suspicion on his face. _Sasuke looks confused, too, so they obviously don't act this way very often... could it have anything to do with the wedding? _She shrugged away her mental questions and queried, "When's the wedding?"

"Tomorrow," Naruto mumbled, the redness replaced by a deep concentration that surprised Sakura. Although she had only known the blond for not even a week, she knew that there was nothing deep about him. What could have made him and Kakashi act so... odd?

She would have guessed Itachi if he was around, but he wasn't. He was the only one that brought about this behaviour in the two men, so... what now? Well, there was only one thing that could explain it: "Is there something important about this wedding?" she asked Sasuke.

He shrugged. "I should be asking you three that, you guys are the ones acting weird. I've never heard of Ino and Hatori until Kakashi and Naruto brought up the wedding singer gig."

She looked to Kakashi and Naruto. "I never thought of it that way... it is a bit odd for a punk rock band to sing at a wedding. What made you guys want to do it?"

Kakashi answered without making eye contact, "Only for the crowds."

She didn't believe him and so turned to Naruto. "And you?"

He shrugged, avoiding her skeptical gaze and murmured, "Just felt like a change, I guess."

Sasuke scoffed and Sakura found herself wanting to do the same. But she didn't. She was still so confused... there was something about this wedding that they felt they had to attend, it seemed. They'd only started acting this way when she'd said that they wouldn't do the wedding. It was obvious that this wedding was important to them... but why? Wait...

"D-Do you guys... know?" she asked quietly, "Is that why you so badly want to do this wedding? To help me?"

"... Huh?" Naruto finally looked at her, a confused expression (that definitely fit their better than the thoughtful one did) on his face. "Know what? I don't get it."

"Well, that Hatori and I were dating and that he cheated on me with my best friend... the girl he's marrying tomorrow," she answered, "That was the whole reason I tried out as a singer that day, because I'd been so angry that it got in the way with my work and I was in need of a... a distraction." She left out the fact that her being fired had been an organized conspiracy.

Naruto's face paled and his expression twisted into one of anger and hatred. "Those bastards. How could they--?"

"Naruto," Kakashi snapped, his look reprimanding and Naruto quieted.

For some reason, sakura didn't think the blond was talking about Ino and Hatori. "Alright, if it means so much to you guys, I'll sing at the wedding... but I want to sing that song. Now that you guys know why, I think you could understand that if you refuse to let me sing it, I'm not singing at all."

Naruto and Kakashi both nodded, but Sasuke was the only one to speak, "We should practise then... we've never actually rehearsed as a band before."

"Shall we go to the studio then?" Kakashi asked, brightening a bit.

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed.

And, with that, they headed off to what Kakashi called "the studio" and Sakura swore she saw Itachi watch them leave, his red eyes barely noticeable through his cracked-open door.

Was he in on it, too?

A/N: I look forward to hearing some of your guesses as to what you think is going on. Chances are you won't get it right, because only CandyLava and I know... and, even then, since I've taken the story into my hands, I've taken advantage of my liberties and have changed a few things, added, tweaked... ANYWAY! I'm getting off-track here! So, yeah, try to guess and, whoever guesses right (or close enough) shall get a cookie! X3


	11. One And Only Friend

A/N: Well, this chapter definitely doesn't have much funny in it, but there is some development in the area of Sakura's and Itachi's relationship and there's a MAJOR twist! The last chapter title wasn't put there for nothing (hint-hint). Hope you like it!

* * *

It seemed that the band was perfect together. Although Sakura had not yet started her voice lessons and this was only their first real rehearsal (they'd only had her sing to the background of an acoustic guitar with no microphones, drum beats and whatnot), Sakura was a natural. They printed off the lyrics and sheet music and then worked with it. Kakashi and Sasuke had to practise the chords on their guitar and bass, Naruto had to practise with the drum and so Sakura practised singing her own parts.

Since half the chorus was sung by a male, Sasuke opted to do those lines. He claimed that, since he was the supposed "member with a bad-ass attitude" he should be the one to sing such "bad-ass lines". Everybody knew that he just wanted to help ruin the wedding in the name of F.o.R and thus increase everybody's opinion of him as an asshole. He seemed to like the thought of people being afraid of him.

"Alright," Kakashi said, sounding a bit reluctant, "I guess this is it, guys." His words seemed to have an underlying meaning that only he and Naruto understood because the blond's face went pale and his lips trembled. He reached for Sakura's hand as though to comfort her, but she knew she was to be the comforter this time. "Are you all ready?"

Everybody nodded. And then they walked through the door and walked down the aisle the people made in the reception hall. They went onto their stage, taking their places and then introduced ourselves.

Kakashi toyed restlessly with his mask while he said, "My name is Hatake Kakashi, bass-player and manager." The audience cheered, obviously fans of the band and the bass player.

"Uchiha Sasuke, guitar and back-up vocals" Sasuke said in clipped tone, retreating further into his mean, emo-boy persona. There was louder applause for him. It was true, Sakura guessed, women really did like the dark and dangerous type. And here she'd thought that was all just some stupid little rumour.

"My name's Uzumaki Naruto, drummer-dude!" Naruto said, trying to sound happy and upbeat, but failing. Nonetheless, there was still applause for him.

She cleared her throat and said, "And I'm Haruno Sakura, lead singer," she said and then went on to say, "And, together, we are Forever..." She paused for effect. "Together, we're Forever of the Resentful!"

Huge applause followed, squealing girls, cheering boys, vows of undying love, requests to marry... and then the bride and groom walked in. They were smiling to their ears, their eyes wide with happiness, their cheeks flushed. They were love and, Sakura had to admit, they made a cute couple.

"One... two..." Naruto began to count and tap his drum sticks together, "One, two, three, four!" And they began to play, Sakura and Sasuke beginning to sing, "I wish I had an angel, For one moment of love, I wish I had your angel tonight..."

Oddly enough, the audience was all for it. The only ones that remained silent and motionless were Ino and Hatori, who were staring at her, their eyes dazed over. They didn't look surprised (since Ino was such a fan of F.o.R, she would have found out about Sakura's acceptance right away), but they looked... sad. Like they missed her... that only made her sing with more feeling. "Old loves, they die hard, Old lies, they die harder." And then Sasuke took up his part, "I wish I had an Angel For one moment of love, I wish I had you angel, Your virgin Mary undone!"

And then the doors were thrown open to show Uchiha Itachi and Sakura paused, her heart skipping a beat. She saw Naruto and Kakashi exchange a glance and nod to each other, but did not stop their playing, only repeated the last few lines so that Sakura could restart... but she couldn't. The look in the Uchiha's eye scared her, enticed her, and made her angry and happy all at the same time. He looked like a man on a mission and, by the way that he never took his eyes off of her, she could tell that she was his mission.

He hopped right onto the stage and smiled down at her as though they were in the most casual of situations, yet that look never left his eye... it warned her to play along or they were both dead. He gave a deep bow, arm out and everything, and, when he stood to his full height once again, he asked, "May I have this dance, mademoiselle?"

There was a harsh intake of breath behind her, telling her that Naruto was not please and she was pretty sure that the deep sound resonating around the ballroom was Sasuke growling, so she looked to Kakashi to tell her what to do. He gave her a quick nod that told her... one dance, that was it.

He snapped his fingers, heard Naruto curse and tossed down his drumsticks in frustration and Sasuke only began to strum quiet, soothing chords on the guitar. None of the three men looked happy.

But she wasn't able to think further into the matter because Itachi had taken her arm to escort her to the dance floor where he held her in a close embrace as they danced. He was a very good dancer, sweeping her along the dance floor and Sakura did her best to keep up. And then he pulled her closer still, wrapping his arms intimately around her and placing his lips to her ear.

"Your little friends over there are plotting against you," he whispered in a seductive whisper that she supposed looked like a murmur of sweet nothings to the naked eye. She tensed, but when his arms tightened around her, she forced herself to relax and act casual.

"Oh?" she asked, pretending to kiss him on the cheek as she whispered, "And what makes you say that?"

"Don't look, but there are security guards all over the place."

"Bouncers."

"Hired men."

She shuddered as his breath tickled her ear and moved away to look at his grave expression. There was no hint of humour on his face. And then his face broke out into a wide grin... yet his eyes remained the same. He was still keeping up the act.

And then he pulled her close once again to whisper into her ear like the murmurings of a lover, "I will be here to keep you safe, Sakura... I know for a fact that they're planning on doing something tonight, I don't know when, nor do I know how... but they will. Don't let on about anything I've said, act normal, even act a bit flustered at what I'm about to do."

"What are you--?"

He never gave her a chance to finish her question because he had pulled away only to pull her back closer still... with a deep kiss. And then he whispered over her lips, "Be safe, Sakura." And then he let her go again, took her arm and escorted her back to the stage.

She stumbled up the stairs (he decided to take the normal way this time) and then went back to the microphone, holding onto it for support. She didn't have to _act_ flustered because she _was_ flustered.

She smiled at Naruto's grim expression and nodded for him to count down the rhythm, but the blond didn't move. And then she heard Kakashi snap his fingers once more, the sound this time echoing forebodingly around the ballroom.

That's when all hell broke loose. Somebody tackled her from behind, there was the sound of Itachi shouting something and then everybody was screaming as a gun went off.

* * *

A/N: Weren't expecting that, now, were you?"


	12. A Means To An End

A/N: Yay! Next chapter! I want to thank all the reviewers for the last chapter, because I really enjoyed hearing your comments. I got quite a few laughs out of it, so thanks! Now, I know you're all dieing to get on with the next chapter, so I'll stop talking and let you all go read!

* * *

The person that had pushed Sakura to the ground was heavy... very heavy. His weight seemed to choke the breath out of her and there was no room to let any back in. When he finally relieved some of his weight from her, she let in a gasping intake of air and coughed.

Then, his mouth was at her ear, but it wasn't intimate like Itachi's lips had been. His voice was harsh but familiar as he whispered, "Keep still, Haruno, they won't try to get to you when I'm on top of you like this." At the sound of his voice, a memory of his ashen face came into mind. This was the drummer from Sub-Zero Solution. But what was he doing here and what did he have to do with what was going on? What did Itachi have to do with what was going on? What _was_ going on, anyway?

"Don't anybody move!" she heard Itachi snap as another gunshot went off, "The next one won't be a warning shot." His voice was softer, but still equally harsh as he said, "Looks like you didn't arm your men with guns, Kakashi... pity."

"The police will be here any minute," somebody said and Itachi laughed. "The police? These two are _working_ for the police! They won't be coming all too quickly." Then, his voice was once again a harsh bark as he commanded, "Kisame! Get her out of here now, before one of these... these bastards decide to tempt me and pull out their own gun."

And then Kisame hauled her up, forced her behind him, his massive body acting as a very effective shield for her. It was useless, however, because she just ended up poking her head around his body to see Itachi standing tall and proud on the stage, holding the barrel of a gun to Kakashi's forehead.

The screaming had died down to whimpers of fear and Itachi, still holding the gun to the other man's head, his finger poised threateningly over the trigger, turned to the audience and said none too kindly, "I suggest you all leave unless you want to be caught up in all this." Then, his eyes moved to the cowering bride and groom, "Sorry for ruining your wedding." And then he turned back to Kakashi, glaring into the eyes that glared right on back.

Kisame took her arm tightly and dragged her toward the door she'd walked through not even half-an-hour ago. He continued to half carry her toward a car, tossed her not-so-gently into the backseat and went to the driver's seat. He started the car and screeched out of there.

Overcoming her shock, she asked, "Wh-What just happened?"

"What did it look like?" he growled impatiently.

"I don't know," she snapped just as impatiently, "I didn't get a chance to see anything. So why don't you tell me?"

He only chuckled and said, "You're in shock, just sit back and relax."

She scoffed and asked, "Why would Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke--?"

"The younger Uchiha wasn't in on it," Kisame interrupted, "He was completely oblivious and that was why he was so... rude the entire time while Uzumaki and Hatake were very nice. And I'll leave all the explanations to Itachi."

"But--!"

"Look," he interrupted, "Go ahead and have your little freak out, but I would appreciate it if you did it quietly. I'm not used to this God-forsaken city and I'm going on directions Itachi told me on the way here."

"Itachi..." she murmured, remembering her savior and the kiss they'd shared, and then she remembered that he was all by himself, "Where is he? Is he going to be okay on his own? Shouldn't we have taken him with us?"

"He told me to take you and get out of there," Kisame said, "So I took you and got out of there. He'll be fine. You heard him say that none of those men had guns. He's probably just going to scare Naruto and Kakashi senseless and then come join us." He stopped in the parking lot of a hotel and got out, opening her door. "Out. Now."

She scrambled out of the car and let him take her arm and escort her into the hotel. He took her to the elevator, up to the fifteenth floor (which was really just the fourteenth floor) and shoved her into one of the suites. "You stay in here."

"And where do you stay?"

"I'll be outside in the hallway until Itachi gets here. Just stay inside this room and don't try anything funny."

She sighed, but nodded her acquiescence. Where else was she going to go? The only people she had left that she could at least think of as friends had just betrayed her... again. Was there a sign on her back that said, "I trust way too easily, feel free to take advantage of my weakness and stab me in the back!"? Just to be on the safe side, she looked over her shoulder to make sure there was no sign. There wasn't.

That's when she broke down. Tears welled in her eyes at the memory of Kakashi glaring down the barrel of that gun, Naruto throwing down his drumsticks in frustration, those looks on their faces at the thought of her not showing up at the wedding. All of it... from the very beginning... it was all a lie? Her shoulders shook with her silent sobs, her face was soon soaked with her tears and she could no longer see through the blurriness the tears caused. A whimper escaped her tightly pursed lips, but she refused to make too much noise. She didn't want Kisame to hear her freaking out.

And then she remembered Itachi's soothing words whispered into her ear, "I will be here to keep you safe... Be safe, Sakura." He wasn't in on it... he protected her. He... kissed her. From the very beginning, he'd protected her, even when he hadn't even known who she was. While he had kept everybody at a cool distance, even his friends, she had been the exception. She had noticed how he had never been as cold-heartedly sarcastic with her as he had with others and now... now she had actions. Now he had risked his life to keep her safe... he was risking his life right now.

With that realization hanging over her head, she stood from her spot on the couch and opened the door to the hallway. Kisame stood in the doorway, his huge body fitting there as though it were framing him. This didn't stop her from slipping around him and rushing down the hall to the elevator.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Kisame exclaimed, grabbing her and spinning her in the other direction. She had to give it up to the big guy; he was quick on his feet. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I need to help Itachi!" she exclaimed, trying to escape his choke hold. "He's out there all by himself and he's going to get hurt! I have to help him!"

"What happened to me telling you to stay put?!"

"That was before I realized that Itachi could get hurt!"

Kisame sighed and released his hold on her and, when she tried to make another run for it, he grabbed her arm, took out his cell phone and hit rocket dial. Upon putting the phone to his ear, he cringed and said, "Yeah, well, she has it in her head that you're going to get yourself killed, so talk to her."

He shoved the phone at her and she took it. "Itachi?" She felt her throat clog up as she waited for him to tell her that he was safe. When he didn't reply right away, she immediately panicked. "Itachi! Hello? Are you okay? Itachi!"

"Sakura," his voice was soft, but weary, "I'm fine. I'm just taking care of some business, Naruto and Kakashi have disappeared, so I'm informing some people that could help us find them."

"When are you going to be back here? I need to know what's going on. Please, Itachi--!"

There were a couple of voices in the background and Itachi cursed. "Look, Sakura, I have to go, but I need you to promise me that you'll stay there, okay? I'll be there as soon as I can, but, for now, Kisame's there and I've ordered him to take care of you, so get him to buy you a big thing of ice cream and some beer and just lounge around until I get there, okay?"

"But..."

"Promise me, Sakura."

She sighed but said, "Alright, I promise."

The voices in the background had become impatient. "Good, now I really have to go. I'll see you when I'm finished here." And, with that, the line went dead.

Holding the phone to her ear, Sakura tried to keep the sound of her one and only friend in the forefront of her mind, but, to her irritation, the memory was distant and hollow, not his voice at all. She missed him already. Drawing in a deep breath, she forced the phone away from her ear and shut it, handing it back to Kisame. "Thanks."

"Yeah. And I wouldn't worry about him, he's always known how to take care of himself."

She turned to head back to the door without a reply, feeling lonelier than ever before.

"Hey... um... you want anything?"

"No," she answered, going back into the hotel suite and sitting on the couch. She would stay up until Itachi came back. She knew she couldn't rest easy knowing that he was out there, risking his life for her.

She was dead asleep moments later.

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A/N: Well, at least there were some warm fuzzies, right? n.n;


	13. Revenge For Her Honor

A/N: Happy 100 reviews, everybody! Thanks to all who have reviewed so far and enjoy this chapter! I made it longer than the other ones to commemorate a milestone... well, a sort of milestone. n.n; And I'm even updating a day early! W00t!

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Sakura didn't know when she'd fallen asleep. She hadn't even known she'd drifted off until the sound of the door closing woke her from her fitful sleep. Looking around, she could see nothing in the darkness, but when her eyes adjusted to the lack of light, she was able to make out Itachi's form, leaning limply against the suite's door.

She was up in an instant. She rushed over to him and lifted his head so that she could look at his face. His eyes, without their usual contact lenses, were black as midnight and half-lidded as he looked blankly into her face. "I-I... Itachi?" she stammered in a whisper, "Are you... okay?"

His eyes finally made up their mind and closed as his shoulders heaved in a silent, weary sigh and a small smile tugged at his lips. "The real question, Sakura, is if _you're_ okay. Kisame took you down pretty hard, did he hurt you badly?"

She shook her head, and then mentally smacked herself when she remembered that his eyes were closed and he couldn't see her. "I'm fine."

He nodded with another sigh, this one satisfied, and he reached up to caress her cheek, his eyes remaining closed. "Good."

She found herself leaning her head into the caress, but then caught herself and moved away from the touch that sent her heart into a rapid beating and caused tears to well in her eyes. When he reached out to take her into his hold again, she took the opportunity and wrapped the arm around her shoulders, her own arm around his waist so that she could help him to bed. "God, you're heavy," she growled as she half-carried him down the hall.

"And it's _all_ muscle, sweetheart," he chuckled.

She kicked open the bedroom door and half-dragged the semi-conscious man toward the bed, setting him down as gently as she could manage. Then, she stooped down to untie and pull off his shoes. Once she was finished, he dragged himself all the way onto the bed and rested his head against a pillow. "You should sleep," he said before yawning, "You've had a long night."

"_I've_ had a long night?" she asked skeptically, "I wasn't the one that crashed a wedding, wooed an innocent girl, foiled a murder attempt and had said innocent girl carted away like a kid being kidnapped."

Itachi merely chuckled and said, "Just go to sleep."

"I've slept already."

"Well then, sleep some more." She sighed and turned toward the door, going to head back to the couch when she heard him say, "Nuh-uh, you're staying in here. If anything, I should be the one to sleep in the living room so that I can keep you safe."

"Then why don't you?"

He cracked one eye open and asked jokingly, "Is that any way to talk to the man that saved your life tonight? Now get in this bed before I make you."

She feigned an annoyed sigh, even though the idea of sleeping in the same room (let alone the same bed) with Itachi made her ecstatic, and she lay down beside him. She tried to stay at the farthest edge of her side of the bed, but Itachi would have none of that. He grabbed her around her waist, tugged her closer to him, gave her an affectionate pat on the head to piss her off and then went back to pretending to sleep.

"You know, I can sleep by myself," she murmured, feeling her eyelids grow heavy, but she fought her sudden weariness.

"I know."

"I mean, I'm a very independent person."

"I know."

"I've been independent for a long time now."

"I know."

"You... know?" she asked in confusion, "How do you know that exactly?"

"Good guess. The same way I'm guessing that your favourite color is red, you hate anchovies on your pizza, you like dogs, but not when they bark at you, and you're a cat-person at heart, but it's a tragic love because you're allergic."

Sakura remained silent, checking all of these things off on her mental tally of useless information on herself and felt irritation well up inside her when all of the things he'd "guessed" were correct. "You're teasing me."

"And you've been spending too much time with Naruto; his powers of observation have rubbed off on you."

"Will you just tell me..."

"Sh," he hushed softly, placing a hand over her mouth to silence her, "Tomorrow. I will answer any and all of your questions tomorrow, but, for now, just sleep. I'm sure you're probably finding it hard to believe that Naruto and Kakashi have done this to you."

As a matter of fact, she was. Narrowing her eyes through the darkness, she asked, "Can you read minds?"

He chuckled and answered, "No."

"Clairvoyant?"

"Nope."

"My love interest sent from the future to protect me?"

There was silence until he answered in a mischievous tone, "Maybe."

Groaning in frustration, she finally closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall asleep.

XOXO

While Sakura awoke early in the morning, expecting to see Itachi up and ready to answer her questions, he remained asleep half the day. This coupled with the fact that Kisame still refused to answer any questions at all, greatly irritated her.

Then, around eleven-thirty in the morning, Itachi appeared wearing the clothes he'd been wearing the night before: a pair of dress pants and a white button-down shirt left open to reveal his beautifully-toned chest. Needless to say, the sight of the naked skin set before her sent all of her irritation running to the hills, screaming.

"Morning, 'Tach," Kisame greeted casually, lazing on the couch, watching Saturday morning cartoons and laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of them all.

Itachi grunted a reply then turned to her with a smirk on his face, "Too bad Naruto's not around, I could use one of his breakfasts."

Sakura did her best to smile at the joke, but it didn't feel right. She wasn't really in the joking mood after the night she'd had.

"Well, I suppose you have a bunch of questions lined up for me," he said, turning to head for a chair where he could sit. That's when she noticed the gun tucked between his belt and his pants.

"That's a gun!" she exclaimed in alarm.

"And I stand by my response that you need to stay away from Naruto when you're so impressionable." With that said he took the gun and set it on the table before sitting down.

"I-Is it loaded?"

"Of course, what good is a gun that isn't loaded?"

She remained silent.

"I only use it when necessary... like last night."

She nodded and ripped her eyes away from the metal weapon that could easily take her life in a second and looked to Itachi. "I do have questions."

He nodded. "What are they?"

"First, what happened last night?"

"Naruto and Kakashi betrayed you."

"Not Sasuke?"

"Not Sasuke."

"So, that means that he's on our side then?"

"Nope."

"So... he's sort of neutral?"

"Well," Kisame drawled, taking a brown paper bag from under the table, "It's a bit more than that. The little turd was left out of everything because of his familial relationship with Itachi and his friendship and loyalty to the band. We left him out because we couldn't honestly expect him to choose a side between us and keep that position later on in the game when somebody got hurt."

"So, what's this all about then?" she queried, "Why did Naruto and Kakashi want me dead anyway?"

"For one thing," Itachi said, "They don't want you dead, just in captivity. Second, in the long run, it's not even you that they want. You're really just a means to an end. The people that they really want are your parents."

"My parents?" she asked in confusion, "Why? That makes no sense, what would they want from my parents except for money?"

Itachi snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Exactly. Because they have, not only their own business, but their own corporation and they have a lot of money." Then, he sighed and asked, "This is where it gets serious. They told me that they had kept you out of all of the secret stuff to keep you safe, so I'm going to have to explain all of this to you."

"Who?" she asked, "What? Who's been keeping what from me and why? How?"

He chuckled at her antics and questioned, "What exactly does your parents' company do?"

"Shipping."

He nodded and eyed her with interest, like a teacher interrogating the correct answer from a student. "And what do they ship? Do you know what they ship and where, why and how?"

She shrugged. "I never thought to ask and they never thought to tell me."

"Oh, they thought to tell you," he corrected, "But they thought better of it. You see, they work in the international arms industry. They enable third-world countries to continue their wars by supplying them with the materials they need at a cost they can just barely afford."

Sakura blinked, trying to understand this. Her parents... were acting as terrorists? They were war-enablers? They were giving people the means to kill other people and thus were causing deaths all over the world? The very people who had raised her into the polite young lady that she was today? "Holy shit," she murmured.

He nodded. "So, I guess you can see where you stand? You're wanted by the police."

"Then I should go straighten it out!" she decided, "Get everybody off my back and settle this the way it should be settled. Since I know that nobody wants to kill me and that all I have to do is..."

Itachi had stood and clasped a hand over her mouth, silencing her mid-sentence. Gravely, he said, "You will do no such thing. I was hired by your parents to keep you from doing that."

"So then... you're expecting me to sit back and let people be killed because of my family?"

"I'm expecting you to let me do my job in protecting both you and your parents," he told her.

"Your... job," she murmured. His job. Job... obligation... chore... burden... he wasn't doing this because of any feelings he might have had for her, he was doing this for money. They weren't friends at

* * *

all! She was officially friendless. "And that kiss last night?"

There was a slight twitch in the corner of one of his eyes, but other than that, his face was unchanging. "All part of the act."

"Act..."

He nodded. "That's right."

Sighing, she sat back and digested this tidbit of information. What surprised her most was the fact that this hurt her more than the idea of her parents being terrorists. Then, she stood and headed for the door, not bothering to hesitate when Itachi's steely voice sliced through the air, "Get back here!"

She didn't wait for an elevator, just headed straight for the stairs, knowing one of the two men were going to be chasing after her soon enough. Then, sure enough, she heard a door slam and she quickened her pace to a run as she raced down the stairs, hoping to make it out of the hotel before they caught her and then hopefully cause a scene and get away.

But it was not to be. When she left the stairwell, it was to find two men looming over her, one a red-head with green eyes and another with blond hair and a large bang over one eye, the other eye a beautiful blue. "Who...?"

"Sakura," the red-head said in a tone that held little inflection, "Itachi wants--"

"No!" she exclaimed, "What Itachi wants and what I want are two completely different things! I am not going to sit back and let terror--!"

A hand reached from behind and silenced the last of her words. "That's quite enough," Itachi whispered in her ear, "I'm not finished explaining everything to you, so why don't you accompany me back upstairs and we can order some room service and chat some more?"

Knowing that there was no way she was going to get around all of these men, she sighed in resignation and let Itachi lead her back up the stairs.

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed, please review!


	14. Naruto and Kakashi Return

A/N: Here's the chappy I promised! Lots of ItaSaku in this one and in chapters to come. So enjoy!

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"Well," Itachi said when they sat down on the couch with their breakfasts, "I'm guessing that you're issue is with the fact that all of this started with my being obligated to protect you."

Sakura sighed. "I'm starting to wonder if you _are_ a mind-reader, after all."

He chuckled and shook his head. "No, I just know how to read the signs. And the signs tell me..." He placed the tips of two fingers to his forehead and closed his eyes, as though he really was doing a psychic reading and continued, "That you only got so upset once I asked you to allow me to do my job."

She shrugged.

He shrugged in the same nonchalant way that she had attempted and admitted, "If you think it's that I'm nothing but an employee, you may rest easy because I'm not being paid to do this. In fact, I'm getting nothing in return for keeping you and your parents safe."

"Then why are you doing this?"

He was silent for a long time and Sakura was about to ask if he was going to answer her anytime soon when he said, "Revenge."

Sakura blinked in surprised confusion and asked as though to confirm that she'd heard correctly, "Revenge?"

He nodded and repeated, "Revenge."

"Revenge on whom?"

He chuckled, but this time there was no humor in the act, only resent and a hint of anger. "When I heard about all the things that Kakashi and Naruto were planning--this was before I was enlisted onto your side and before I even had thoughts of leaving F.o.R--," he paused again, this time to inhale and exhale, trying to keep his cool as his hands balled into fists on his knees, and then once again continued, "That they were planning on hurting an innocent person for the sake of 'what was right'... well, I confronted them. They said that I was either with them or against them, seeing as how there was no way I could play no part knowing what I knew. I told them I was against them and told the press the next day of my leaving Forever of the Resentful. My revenge is for that person's honor."

"Whose honor exactly?"

He refused to make eye contact with her as he answered, "Yours."

"M-Mine?!"

He nodded, finally looking at her. "Yours. They'd planned to befriend you from the very beginning and then turn you into the police for interrogation to find your parents. How could I let you be used like that? With the intent of keeping you from either having to betray your parents or getting hurt, I went through all the channels and contacted your parents. I never actually thought they'd ask me to be your personal bodyguard."

"Wow," she murmured, "So, you did all this for a complete stranger?"

He nodded. "There is a lot of good in this world, Sakura, and, although it's usually quite hard to see nowadays, good intentions can be found if you look hard enough."

She remained silent, not wanting to ruin the man's optimism. Besides Itachi, she hadn't found a single person out to just do the right thing or somebody that hadn't purposefully hurt her in a long time. She doubted she could ever be so naїve again.

She felt his knuckles brush gently across her cheek and closed her eyes, enjoying the brief contact while it lasted. "But I haven't been able to keep you completely safe, have I?" he asked quietly, his tone saddened.

She looked to him and asked, "What do you mean?"

His eyes were focused on her lips, an odd glint in them as he clarified, "You seem quite distant at times. As if you're afraid of getting too close with somebody... with me. Did somebody make you like this?"

Sakura made to stand up, but Itachi had taken her hand and pulled her back onto the couch. His eyes were suddenly intense as he asked, "Who did it?"

She shook her head and tried to free her hand from his hold, but he only tightened his grip. "Nobody did anything."

His eyes showed no hint of belief.

"Um... shouldn't you continue explaining things to me? I-I still have more questions."

Itachi sighed but took the hint and changed the subject back to what had happened the night before. "So I've explained what Naruto and Kakashi were doing and why, what I'm doing and why. Are there any other questions you want to ask?"

She nodded.

"And what would they be?"

"It's just one question."

"Then what is it?"

"What do you plan to do to keep me away from Naruto, Kakashi and the police?" she asked, "You do know that, if we get caught, that you'd be charged with Obstruction of Justice? And what if I decided to sneak away from this place and go to the police? What would you do then? Have you really thought this out?"

Itachi chuckled. "That's a lot more than one question."

She shrugged. "Okay, so I had four questions. Now how about answering them?"

"You won't be going to the police," Itachi answered firmly, as though it was the only thing in this life that he was sure of, "I know that for a fact."

"Oh?" she asked dryly, quirking a brow skeptically. "And how do you know that for certain?"

"Because," he answered with a chuckle, "Your antics last night showed me that you do, in fact, have some sort of feelings toward me and you don't want me to get hurt. If you didn't care, you wouldn't have had Kisame call me so that you could hear that I was alive. And you would have put up more of a resistance to sleeping in the same bed with me."

"This is no time to be teasing me!" she snapped impatiently and, standing to leave, she grumbled, "Why did I even come back if you weren't going to take me seriously?" She was in the doorway when his voice stopped her.

"Who said I was teasing you?" His voice was a low growl, a seductive growl, and then he was behind her, making her stop her walking. "And who said I wasn't being serious?"

"I-Itachi," she stammered as his hands found her waist and pulled her against his chest so that he could nuzzle her neck. "Wh-What are you doing?"

"Returning your feelings," he mumbled as he nipped a little patch of skin on her neck, making her shudder, "You _do_ like me, don't you, Sakura?"

She nodded. "I-I do. You're a very attractive man, Itachi."

"And you're a very attractive woman, Sakura," he replied, tightening his hold on her with one arm as the hand attached to the other arm began to explore other areas. Once it found one of her breasts through her shirt, she shuddered again and let out a breathy moan.

"But Kisame..."

"I sent him away."

"He could be back at anytime."

"I told him not to come back until I called him back and I won't call him back unless there's some sort of trouble."

"Trouble as in...?"

"Naruto-and-Kakashi trouble or you-trying-to-escape-trouble," he answered, "But I can always keep you from escaping by keeping you so busy that you won't even be able to think of escaping for a long time."

Her chin trembled and tears stung her eyes and threatened to make a break for it. She closed her eyes against them and whispered, "Please... please Itachi... please don't hurt me."

He paused in the middle of giving her a hickey and his hand stopped toying with her breast over the cloth of her T-shirt and he raised his mouth to whisper into her ear, "I will be careful not to."

"N-No, that's not what I mean," she corrected and he stopped her from speaking further by spinning her around and crushing his lips to hers with a passion that had been at least halved the night before.

When he broke the kiss, he said, "I know what you meant. And I would never hurt you. I'm protecting you, remember?"

She nodded and buried her face in his chest while he reached down to start pulling up her shirt.

_Please... don't hurt me, _she inwardly pleaded as she began to unbuckle his belt and then started on his pants. _I don't think I could take it if you hurt me... I think that would hurt me most of all._

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A/N: Aww, so cute! Please review, because it's a well known fact that every review fuels the brain, making the words flow through a human's fingers quicker and thus finishing chapters quicker, which, in turn makes updates quicker. So please review!


	15. Going To Canada

A/N: More ItaSaku-ness. Chapters might be coming in slower than they have been because, for one thing, I'm a bit blocked and, for another thing, diploma exams. So, I hope you enjoy this one!

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When Sakura awoke, it was to find Itachi in her bed, his strong arms enveloping her, holding her to his strong chest. She felt safe and warm in his arms and safe was something she hadn't felt in a long time, so it was a pleasant feeling. She cuddled further into his chest and breathed in his scent to find it musky and sweet. She found that she loved the way he smelled.

Then she felt his hold tighten and she looked up to find him smiling sleepily at her. "Hey," he murmured softly, kissing the tip of her nose.

"Hey yourself," she replied, returning the kiss with one to his lips.

"Did I keep to my word?"

She chuckled and answered, "Yep, I was much too busy to even think of escaping."

"And do you still want to escape?"

She thought on that a moment before saying, "If there's any chance that there'll be a repeat of earlier, then I don't think I'll ever leave your side."

He chuckled and rolled onto his back so that she could straddle his waist. "I'm quite sure that there'll be a repeat of earlier, because I enjoyed it just as much as you did. So I guess you're staying here."

"I guess so," she giggled and leaned down to give him a kiss on the lips. "Want to go at it again?"

He feigned thought for a moment then smirked and answered, "I thought you'd never ask."

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The rest of that day was spent with Sakura and Itachi remaining in bed, having sex off and on and ordering room service for sustenance. And the next day... well...

_Knock, knock, knock... _"Room service!"

"The door's open!" Itachi hollered from the bedroom, holding Sakura closer. "We're in the bedroom, Ritsu, as usual."

There was an amused chuckle from the living room and then the bedroom door was thrown open to show Naruto. "Well," the blond said, scowling at Itachi, "Your keeping her by your side by making her believe you want her, huh? Pathetic."

Both Sakura and Itachi returned Naruto's scowl with ones of their own. "How did you find us?" Itachi asked, "We booked this hotel under a false name and paid in cash. How were you able to track us... and so quickly, too?"

"Thus is the power of the federal police, Itachi," Kakashi said, walking into the room, a gun in his hand. "They even gave us guns so that we won't be the ones unprepared this time."

"Please tell me you took the gun to the room yesterday," Sakura whispered, knowing what the answer would be even before Itachi shook his head.

Just great... he had asked her what use an unloaded gun would be, but now what use was a gun that was in the other room? At least if they had an unloaded gun with them, they could toss it at the men's heads. At least that would have been of some use to them.

Kakashi raised the gun, aiming it at Itachi. His eyes never left the man as he spoke to Sakura, his voice soft, "Sakura, you're the victim in all of this. You've been shamelessly caught in the middle and we're terribly sorry and we understand that you probably resent us by now for our actions. However, your parents are taking innocent lives for profit and it has to be stopped. You're parents went into hiding the moment Itachi told them what we were doing that you have to know where they are."

Sakura thought a moment and then nodded. They had told her where they were going, but she had been so busy with Naruto and Kakashi's antics that she hadn't really been listening. All she could remember was that they were somewhere in the Americas.

"So just tell us where they are and we will be out of your hair," Kakashi said, "You two can just run off together somewhere and nobody needs to know where." Kakashi took out a check and placed it on the table beside the door. "This is the check for what little time you spent in F.o.R. It's more than enough to see that you get away and that you can start an easy life somewhere else. So, please, just tell me where they are."

Sakura remained silent, her eyes fixed on the check on the table. And then she said, "Alright, I'll tell you." She paused, refusing to look at Itachi when he let in a hiss of breath, obviously not expecting this after what they had just spoken about the day before. "They're in Beijing. I'm not sure where they were planning on staying, but they are in Beijing."

Itachi's tight grip on her loosened and he growled. It seemed that he was willing to play along. "Great, just great! I hope you're happy, Sakura, now that you've betrayed your own parents."

She feigned a cringe.

"I should have let that man at the press conference attack you."

This time Sakura didn't have to feign a cringe, this one was real.

Itachi stood from the bed, pulled on a pair of pants and stormed out of the room. Naruto was about to go after him when Sakura cried for him to stop. "Please don't arrest him or hurt him. You promised that you would leave us alone if I told you where my parents are and I have... so leave him alone."

Naruto sighed and looked to Kakashi for confirmation. The masked man nodded. "Thank you, Sakura; you've just saved hundreds of innocent lives." And then they left.

_Have I? _she wondered sadly, hugging herself, _No... but I saved Itachi's and his life is what matters most to me right now. _

Speaking of which, she had to go take a look for him. She needed to find him and tell him that it was all over. So, she jumped out of bed, threw on the clothes she'd worn the day before and rushed out of the hotel suite. She rushed down the hallway and was about to shout for the people in the elevator to hold the door when somebody appeared out of anywhere and caught her in his arms.

At first, she was going to scream for, but then she recognized the feeling of his arms around her and she sighed with relief. "Itachi," she whispered, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face into his bare chest. "You stayed."

"You actually thought I'd leave?" he asked with a soft chuckle, "Now, why would I go and do a thing like that?"

"To keep up the act that you were mad at me?"

"I'm very good at hiding," he told her, "I'm sneaky in that way."

Sakura had to giggle. She had never heard Itachi say the word "sneaky" and it seemed silly coming from his lips. He seemed so serious that the word sneaky was just weird. It totally killed her impression of him as a serious bastard-type. Then something hit her. "You're leading me on."

He tensed around her and he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, you told me yesterday that the kiss you gave me at the wedding was all a part of the act," she explained, still holding on to him and speaking as though she was stating the weather. Perhaps she didn't really believe what she was saying? "Then you started kissing me after I started talking about leaving, and now Naruto said that you were just making me believe that you liked me so that I would do what you wanted."

"He was just saying that to get at you so that you would lose your faith in me. It's the most obvious trick in the book, Sakura."

"But--" her words were halted by Itachi stepping away and taking her chin between his thumb and forefinger to incline her head. When their eyes met, a chill ran down her spine at the intenseness in his gaze. There was no room for doubt that any of his feelings for her were farce in his eyes. "Oh..." she breathed, and then her lips tugged into a smile as she stood on the tips of her toes to kiss him.

His hand left her chin to go to her back, the other one catching her behind the knees so that he could carry her bridal-style back into the hotel suite. "I really hope you're not wearing underwear right now," he growled warningly over her lips.

"Don't worry," she murmured over his lips, "I didn't have time to put them on, so I'm commando."

"Good," he replied, kicking the bedroom door closed and tossing her onto the bed, falling on top of her, "Now your panties won't have to suffer for being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Sakura giggled and brought her lips to his once more. "Good, because they were my favourite pair, cherry blossom patterned."

"I should've known," he groaned, "That your favourite would be cherry blossom patterned. And I already knew what pattern they were, I took them off you, remember?"

"Right," she moaned and kicked off her pants while Itachi kicked off his own. And then the two became one once more.

* * *

A/N: I think this chapter was a bit rushed...


	16. Mommy and Daddy

A/N: I managed to work around my writer's block and, to celebrate, COOKIES FOR EVERYONE!!!

* * *

A couple days later, Sakura and Itachi moved back into their own apartments. Well, sort of. It started out with them moving back into their own apartments and then Itachi went over to Sakura's for some dinner and just didn't leave. Of course, he went back to his own place to grab fresh clothes and whatnot, but the majority of their time was spent in Sakura's apartment. More specifically, in her bedroom.

"They're going to be back, you know," he whispered one night, his arms wrapped around her, their legs intertwined, "When they find out that your parents aren't in Beijing, they're going to come back here and they won't be as patient with you as they were at the hotel."

She nodded and planted a kiss on his chest. "I know," she whispered in reply, "That's why I never spent that money Kakashi and Naruto gave me. Where would you like to move to?"

He looked at her with faint surprise. "You mean leave the country?"

She nodded. "The only question is where you want to go."

"But what about your life here?" he asked, "Friends and family and all that stuff?"

"You're my only friend," she answered and, when he looked skeptical, she said, "Well, I had two friends before I joined F.o.R, a boyfriend and a best friend, but my boyfriend cheated on me with my best friend. That's sort of the answer to your questions about who hurt me that other day."

He was silent and then he sighed. "Well, it would probably be best to go see your parents. They wanted me to bring you to them once we lost Naruto and Kakashi so that they could see for themselves that you were safe."

"You don't sound so happy," Sakura commented, "I thought it was a good idea for us to leave the country."

"I'm just surprised," he explained, "I had been wondering how to broach the subject of us leaving the country for a while and I was expecting there to be an argument followed by some make-up sex. Oh, well, no make-up sex then, I guess."

Sakura giggled and then feigned a scowl. "Jerk."

He blinked in confusion, then, when he caught on, he suppressed a smirk and replied, "Bitch."

"Asshole."

"Cow."

"Retard."

"... Cow."

"Ha!" Sakura exclaimed, poking him in the side, "That's a repeat, I win! Now, let's have make-up sex so that you won't be whining and complaining in the morning." With that, she kissed him and then they were at it all over again.

In between kisses, Itachi asked her, "Have you ever been to Canada?"

"No," she answered.

"I think you'll like it."

XOXO

And, after that, they had started packing their things to go to Canada. Of course, since it was such a big move and they were low on time, they really only took what they needed: clothes; bank and credit cards (that they planned to empty out at an ATM in a random gas station, just to be careful); their personal info and all that stuff. They didn't need bedding or anything like that because, if they were indeed going to see Sakura's parents, they could simply stay with them and, if not; they could go to a cheap motel until they found a half-decent apartment for cheap.

"Do you know English?" Itachi asked one day while they were packing.

"A little bit," she answered, "I used to watch American movies with Japanese subtitles and I learned a little bit that way. But I'm nowhere near fluent. Do you speak English?"

Itachi nodded. "Since F.o.R did a world tour, we picked up a few words from a few different languages. But, seeing as how English is the universal language and a lot of countries teach English as a second language, I learned more English than any of the others and so I decided to continue with it. Though I'm not completely fluent and what they call their 'alphabet' is rather confusing, I can speak conversationally."

Sakura nodded. "Well then, at least we'll be able to blend in a little bit..."

Itachi chuckled. "We can only hope."

And so, when they had all their necessities packed, they left without a word to anybody. They went to a gas station, emptied their cards and then booked the next flight out of the country.

Of course, since it was such short notice, they had to make a layover in Africa, where they managed to catch a few Z's, but then they were on their non-stop flight to Canada and they knew that they were free.

Sakura was so thrilled to know that she was safe and that Itachi was by her side that she couldn't sleep. Besides, she needed to make a couple phone calls. While Itachi had called Kisame about his departure to the Great White North, she had been much too busy packing her things and worrying about what to bring that she hadn't thought to bring up calling her parents.

But now that Itachi had given her a number she could call and she had the time, she knew that she should probably alert her parents so that she didn't randomly show up on their doorstep... or whatever it was Canadians had at their door.

So, she picked up the plane's phone, swiped the new credit card Itachi had gotten specifically to be used in Canada and dialled the number. Then, as the phone rang a third time, she wondered what time it was in Canada. Would she be waking her parents up from sleep? She hoped not... even though they were her parents, now that she knew they were terrorists, she didn't much like the idea of them being angry at her.

What if they used one of those illegal guns on her?

But then the ringing ended on the fourth and she heard her mother say "hello" in what, to Sakura, seemed like flawless English, even though it sounded more like "Hero".

"Mom?"

There was silence and, once Mrs. Haruno had realized that she would have to speak Japanese now, she asked in perfect Japanese, "Who is this?"

"It's me," she answered, "Sakura."

Silence... silence... silence... then, "Tomi, I think you should get up now, our daughter's on the phone." There were a few muffled complaints in the background while Sakura's mother asked in a cheery voice, "How are you, Dear?"

A scoff was her answer and she said, "I just called to tell you that I'm on a plane to Canada right now and we'll be there in a matter of hours. I'm not sure, but I think there are, like, six hours left."

More silence... more silence... more silence... "You WHAT?!"

Sakura had to massage her ringing ears before she could put the phone back, "We—as in Itachi and I—are on our way to Canada. We had to get out of Japan to get away from a couple of guys and Itachi figured it'd be best to come to you."

"Tomi, get up! Sakura's on a plane headed for us."

"She's WHAT?!" Now Sakura remembered why her parents had married each other, their brains ran on the same frequency."

Before Sakura found herself deaf in one ear, she decided to cut the conversation short. "We'll call you when the plane lands and, hopefully, you'll be there when we get out of Customs." With that, she hung up without a goodbye.

She didn't like being so rude to her parents, but she had to admit that this was, essentially, their fault. That made her feel better for being such a bitch and she finally managed to sit back and get some shut-eye.

She was on her way to Canada and she was going to need to be wide awake to have the faintest idea what went on there.

* * *

A/N: I really hope Itachi comes and pays me a visit! n///n


	17. Reasons

A/N: Yay! Next chapter! X3

* * *

"Sakura!" Mrs. Haruno exclaimed happily, throwing her arms around her daughter once the couple emerged from customs, "Oh, baby, I'm so happy to see you! How was your flight? Did it go smoothly?"

Sakura gave her mother a half-hearted hug in return and answered, "It was alright, my butt went into a coma after hour five, so it doesn't hurt anymore."

"That's a shame," Itachi commented, appearing behind Sakura to place his hands on her shoulders, "It's such a cute little behind." He gave her rump a little smack and she gave a squeak of surprise. "It lives!" he exclaimed, making a very good impression of Dr. Frankenstein.

Mrs. Haruno stepped back from the two to eye them with interest. Then, her expression brightened and she cried, "You two are a couple, aren't you? You two are so adorable together! Oh, this is just wonderful... marvellous, really!"

Sakura groaned and Itachi smirked. And then Sakura's father approached the trio to make it a foursome. "Come now, Noriko, don't antagonize them, they're probably exhausted after the flight. Uchiha-san," he greeted with a nod.

Itachi returned the nod and replied, "Haruno-sama."

"I trust you've taken care of our little pests and put them in their right place?"

"Tomi!" Noriko hissed, looking up at her husband scornfully, "Not in front of our daughter! Itachi probably hasn't—"

"Don't worry," Sakura cut in dryly, eying her parents with no hint of amusement in her tone or her voice, "I already know everything, so you don't have to act so 'secretive' on my account." She didn't add that, if not for her romantic feelings for Itachi, her parents would be behind bars facing charges for terrorism right at that moment.

Noriko moistened her lips, looking thoughtful until she asked quietly, "Everything? As in...?"

"Everything," Sakura repeated firmly, harshly.

Tomi sighed, obviously deciding to ignore her rudeness for the moment. "Well, at least now we don't have to explain everything to you, so that saves us some time." Then, his look sharpened as he queried, "So did you lose the Japanese police or not?"

"We sent them on a red herring," Itachi answered.

Sakura cleared her throat and looked at her lover pointedly as she corrected, "Actually, _I_ sent them on a red herring. _You_ pitched a fit and stormed off to make it more believable, but the herring was essentially my idea."

Itachi chuckled, quirking a brow at her before turning back to Tomi. "I'm going out on a limb with this, but I'm guessing that she takes after you?"

Tomi actually graced the group with a smirk as he answered, "Rings 'em in like her mommy and blows 'em all away like her daddy. So I'd best be careful if I were you."

Itachi wrapped an arm around Sakura's shoulders and replied, "I doubt I have anything to worry about... I was the one to rope her in, not the other way around."

Tomi's look darkened and the corner of her upper lip curled back in a snarl as he cocked a brow at the man.

Itachi quickly added, "And the only way I plan to blow her away is with affection."

Tomi nodded, satisfied with that. "As it should be for my little girl."

Sakura groaned again and Itachi chuckled. He was obviously enjoying this more than she was and she couldn't help but think, _Stupid Uchiha, being so easily amused._

But then he turned a warm smile her way and the teensy weensy little chip of ice that had fallen upon her heart melted and she found herself smiling in return. She couldn't help it, he was just so adorable!

"Well, let's not stand around like a bunch of idiots," Tomi said, clapping his hands together and turning, "How about we go home so that you two can have a nice shower and then you can have a nap. We made sure to get a place with a spare bedroom because we knew that Sakura was coming." He turned the second smirk in five minutes at them and said, "But I had only been expecting Sakura, so... I trust a double bed will do nicely?"

Sakura flushed and Itachi snorted. "More than enough actually," he answered, becoming a little more audacious... he seemed to be taking advantage of the rarity of a curve to Haruno Tomi's lips. "_Daddy_."

Tomi actually laughed at that, went back, smacked Itachi on the back and actually, wrapped an arm around his shoulders to walk with him to the car, leaving Noriko and Sakura behind.

Noriko watched them go and laughed. "I knew he had a fatherly affection for Itachi but I didn't think it'd come this far."

Sakura shrugged. "Come on, or Dad'll drive off without us." With that, the two rushed to catch up with the two men.

The car ride home was pretty quick and Sakura spent the time checking out the sights. Where was she again? She knew that the name of the thing they called a "province" started with an A, but she hadn't the faintest idea about the city and so she brought it up to Itachi.

"The city is called Edmonton," he answered, "It's Alberta's capital city and what they call the 'City of Champions' because of these two famous hockey players that lived here... don't ask me what their names are because I don't know."

"Edmonton?" she asked, "That's a weird name."

"You think that name is weird?" he scoffed, "Take into consideration the name of the western-most province: British Columbia... it's neither British nor Columbian."

Sakura burst out laughing at that. "Okay, that's better than Edmonton."

He nodded. "The west is weird like that."

Then, after making sure that her parents weren't paying attention she turned to him and whispered, "We slept most of the flight... are we going to get any sleep at my parents' place?"

He gave a suggestive chuckle and answered, "I wasn't planning to have much sleep and I was hoping that you were planning the same."

Her face flushed at the ideas he was presenting to her.

"Shall I wash your back in the shower?"

Her face flushed even more. "Well... my back _is_ a bit dirty."

He suppressed a laugh and said, "That's my girl."

If Sakura had had any reluctance to spend time at her parents' place, it was all gone because she could not wait until she got there.

* * *

The house was huge, with a balcony at every bedroom window and, the front door was actually two doors with gold plating around the frames and Sakura guessed that it was probably real gold, too. The house looked Victorian and she, also, guessed that it wasn't just Victorian-style, but the real deal.

"I see you guys are taking advantage of your situation," she commented dryly, looking the house over, "How many people did you kill to get such a nice house?"

Nobody answered, but Itachi tensed beside her, silently telling her that she would do well to keep her mouth shut. She didn't bother to tell him that, after all her parents had put her through, she didn't exactly care what she would do well to do.

Then, Tomi said, "Look, let's get inside and we'll explain everything to you."

"Itachi told me everything already."

"Not everything," Noriko corrected, "There are even things that he doesn't know. So, come on, I'll make us some coffee, you guys go have a rest and then we'll talk, okay?"

Sakura shrugged with a sigh, but nodded. She supposed that, if her parents were going to let her stay with them on such short notice, she could at least hear them out. What they couldn't expect, however, was that she was going to immediately change her impression of them because she doubted anything would change it now.

But, for now, Sakura was exhausted and so took Itachi up on his offer to wash her back as they talked about what they planned to do now that they were in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

"We'll eventually need to get jobs," he told her as he shampooed her hair for her, "New identities, too. We'll have to change the way we look. How do you feel about having black hair?"

"Black hair?" she asked, thinking it over. "I don't know, I've never thought about it. I suppose it might look nice."

"Good, because I went and picked up the dye during the layover."

Sakura giggled. "Sounds good then."

* * *

A/N: Please review!


	18. I Love You

A/N: This one... took a lot of thought, so please don't be mad if it sucks.

* * *

After a nice long shower and an even nicer long nap (it seemed that Tomi and Noriko had been joking about the twin bed, the real bed was _huge_!), Sakura and Itachi left their posh new room to join the two elder people in the living room for tea and sandwiches. There, they began the discussion about the weapons' smuggling in third-world countries.

"So?" Sakura asked brusquely receiving a warning glare from Itachi for her troubles, "What's your excuse for what you've been doing?"

Noriko and Tomi exchanged a grim look before turning that same look to the two before them. "We have no excuse," Tomi answered truthfully, "Only reasons."

Itachi, obviously deciding that he'd rather not be blown away by one of the illegal guns these two were selling decided to change the subject to something a little bit safer. "This is a very nice house you bought, Haruno-sama, very much like the one I own in Okinawa, but do you think it's wise to be spending your money so frivolously? Surely the Canadian government will become curious of how you got your fortune and do some investigating?"

Tomi seemed to have taken quite a liking to the Uchiha singer because he gave him yet another grin and answered, "Here, we're not known as Haruno Tomi and Noriko. Instead, we're Takahashi Akira and Satsu."

"And these names are backed up?" Itachi persisted, "What if they typed in those names and found nothing?"

"They're real identities," Tomi answered patiently, "You see, our organization has hands in many cookie jars, a number of those sneaky hands in the government. It was easy to have some strings pulled and get some new files made in their database. We also took the liberty of having some new files put in for the two of you."

Sakura blinked in surprise. "You mean... new identities?"

Noriko nodded. "I'm not sure how you two managed to get those pesky F.o.R boys off your back and, honestly, from what you told me you did to Ino and Hatori when you caught them in bed together, I don't want to know." She paused to let Sakura punch Itachi in the shoulder when he had to choke back a laugh. "But we have to be prepared for anything and it's obvious that, when they realize the trail you led them on was a dead end, they're going to be scouring the World-Wide-Web and much more for anything on your recent status."

Sakura nodded, realizing that she hadn't thought about that. Itachi had told her about changing her looks, but her name as well?

"So, in public, Sakura, your name is Natsumi and Itachi, yours is Reizo," Tomi said, looking to Itachi slyly, "Noriko chose the names."

Sakura giggled. "Reizo picks him perfectly, he is cool, he's calm and—" she paused to tug at his ponytail, "He's well-groomed."

Itachi's chest puffed out with an emotion between pride and indignation and, when Tomi snorted back a laugh and Noriko laughed into her tea cup, he quickly regained himself and slouched over his own cup of tea.

Sakura giggled and affectionately pushed some strands of his bangs from in front of his face and tucked them behind his ear. Then, unexpectedly, when she went to take her hand away, it decided to take a detour and her knuckles lightly brushed against his cheek. Then, she, too, realized that she'd gone into happy-lover mode and shook herself back to the problem at hand.

She turned to her parents, who were smirking at the two of them and she silently reminded herself that she and Itachi were no longer in their own private hotel room where they could privately show their affection for one another. They would have to get a handle on that.

"Anyway, back to business," Noriko teased good-naturedly and sipped at her tea. When she set the cup back down, she made a steeple with her fingers and said, "We'll have some stylists come and pay us a visit and we'll get you two whole new looks."

"Oh, that isn't necessary," Itachi said, "You see, I took the liberty of buying some hair dye, so—"

Noriko shook her head as though insulted. "No. If we're going to do this, we're going to do this properly. There will be no short cuts in this when all of our lives are at risk. You already know that the Canadian government, ever the peaceful mediator, would more than happily deliver us back to Japan for our death sentence if we're caught and you two, as aiders and abetters, will also have a hefty sentence, so we need to do all we can to keep from being caught."

"We wouldn't be in this mess if you two had just practised what you preached to me as a child and did what you knew in your heart to be right."

Tomi sighed and said, "I guess that you aren't going to give up the guilt trips until we explain our position, will you, Sakura?"

"Natsumi, and no, I won't... even when you do explain your position, I probably won't stop with the guilt trips because you're going to continue with this whole weapon-smuggling business."

"Actually," Noriko intervened before Tomi snapped off a rude remark that he couldn't take back, "We _are_ pulling out of that business. Our last course of business before leaving Tokyo was to sell the company and, with the profit we got off of it, we're starting our new lives here. We've already bought the lease on a vacant store in a strip mall and we're going to run a convenience store."

Sakura quirked a brow at her, giving her an unimpressed gaze as though to say, "And that makes it all better?"

Noriko sighed. "Listen, Sakura—"

"Natsumi," Itachi and Sakura corrected in unison, making Noriko send them an amused smirk.

"Okay, listen, Natsumi," she amended, "We didn't start this company ourselves, it has been in your father's family for generations. Your father became the owner of the company in your grandfather's stead, so it really wasn't our idea—"

"That doesn't matter!" Sakura exclaimed, "You said that you didn't have any excuses, only reasons, but all I'm hearing are pitiful excuses. So, if this is your only explanation, I don't want to hear it at all and Itachi and I will just go to a motel till we can rent a place."

When nobody gave any immediate response, Sakura shook her head and made to stand, but her father's stern voice, known to stall a rampaging wife in her tracks made her pause. "That's quite enough with your temper, Sakura—" He raised a hand when she tried to correct him again, "Enough! Now, you are going to sit down and listen to _me_ explain everything and you will patiently wait to speak up until I am finished!"

Sakura plopped back down on her behind and did as told.

"Now," his voice lost some of its chill, but not by much, "The reason why we didn't dissolve the company long ago, a reason that not even your mother knows," he paused to cast an apologetic glance at Noriko, "Is more involved with the government of Japan than any terrorist organization."

Sakura looked confused by this, but didn't speak her puzzlement.

"My great grandfather, when the First World War first started, created Haruno Enterprises as a way of making and shipping weapons at a more costly rate, but, since the gun had always been very unreliable, the extra money went to researching, developing and testing prototypes of guns to see what would make them better, safer, easier to use. Eventually, breakthroughs were made and the government began sending the company extra funding so that they could find even more ways of making war easier.

"The First World War ended and the government's funding stopped, but the company kept going, sending guns all over the world for various reasons. But the government didn't like this, because they felt Haruno enterprises was causing unnecessary war, but my great grandfather refused to believe that the guns caused the war but the people using the guns themselves. So, they continued their business despite the government's complaints.

"Then, World War Two started and the complaints were replaced with millions of tax-payers; dollars to invest in their first-class weaponry. But, as soon as the war was over, the funding once again ended and was replaced with complaints. Then, the requests for the company to lie off were sent and Haruno Enterprises kindly declined. The requests turned into demands and the declines turned into rejections.

"Eventually, warrants were made, but my great grandfather had stepped down and my grandfather was the owner and he, being much cleverer than his father, went into hiding."

"So, the government is a fickle bastard and Haruno Enterprises started out with good intentions."

"Exactly."

"And, what about now?"

"It's true that we made a profit off of the deaths of others, but, if we don't sell them the guns, somebody else will. If they're just going to get the weapons anyway, why couldn't we make a profit?"

Sakura glowered. "I don't very much like that way of thinking... _Father_."

Tomi winced. "Yes, we became greedy and we did a bad thing and we roped you into it, but it started out with good intentions."

She shook her head. "Then doesn't matter, what matters now is now... and now, you have lost all of my respect." Sakura stood, gave Itachi a look that said, "Follow or don't follow, your choice" and headed for her room to grab her things.

She smiled when she heard her lover's apologies and then his footsteps trailing behind her. Then she felt his hand at the small of her back and his breath in her ear as he whispered, "I don't think you have ever been sexier to me than you are right now."

She giggled and took his hand in her own. "You're sexier every time I look at you."

"What do you plan to do now?"

"We're going to turn them in."

* * *

A/N: Ooh... and the cards are down! X3


	19. Goodbye

A/N: I think I really like this chapter, it's got Naruto and Kakashi in it, but it's based more on the romantic issues with Itachi and Sakura. And said female vocalist realizes something important about herself that will change everything.

* * *

"Hatake speaking," Kakashi's grim voice came on the line after the third ring. It seemed that he was becoming aware of the false tracks Sakura had sent him on, "How can I help you?"

"K-Kakashi," Sakura stammered into the phone in the cheap motel she and Itachi had checked themselves into, "It's Haruno Sakura. I have some things I would like to tell you and I was wondering if you and I could set up a time and place to meet up and discuss... things."

"Sakura," Kakashi muttered when Naruto's distant voice asked who Kakashi was speaking to. Then, Kakashi's voice came back to Sakura and said, "I was wondering about where you were, Sakura. I take it you're aware that your parents aren't in Beijing?"

"Uh... yeah," she answered, "I was aware of that. That's what I wanted to talk about. How would you like to come to Eduardo, Alvarado?"

"Eduardo Alvarado?" Kakashi asked, a tone of puzzlement in his voice.

Itachi sighed and took the phone, saying, "She's having trouble speaking English. She means Edmonton, Alberta... yes, it's Itachi," the Uchiha's voice became annoyed very quickly, "You can trust me because I'm behind Sakura with whatever she plans to do and, if that means that we're putting the Harunos is jail, it means we're putting the Harunos in jail... yes, I do realize that it's difficult for you to trust me... yeah, I realize that, too. Uh-huh... well then, I'll just slide this phone back to somebody you have even the slightest possibility of liking." He passed her the phone with a roll of his eyes.

"Kakashi?"

"Naruto and I will have our benefactor call the Canadian government and we'll be down there on the next flight. We'll call you from the plane."

"Okay."

"Oh, and Sakura?"

"Hm?"

"You're doing a very good thing by calling me. Don't forget that, alright?"

Sakura had to pause to swallow the fist-sized lump at the back of her throat. "Yeah, I'll remember."

"Okay." Then, there was some loud shouting in the distant that sounded like, "Are we seeing Saku-chan?! Alright! I'll go get my fancy cologne! ... Wait, is she still sleeping with that weasel? I'll bring some rodent repellent, too." Kakashi chuckled and said, "Naruto sends his regards." With that, the call ended.

Sakura sighed and hung up, turning back to Itachi who was laying on the bed, his eyes closed, a goofy grin on his face. "What are you smirking at? You want me to smack you?"

"Please, no," he answered, "I have enough bruises from you, thank you very much. I wouldn't mind a kiss, though."

Sakura gave him a kiss on the lips and, when she tried to pull back, he grabbed her by both sides of her head and pulled her close. He whispered over her lips, "Have I told you how hot you look while you're negotiating with the enemy?"

She chuckled and answered, "You say that every time I finish doing something. Yesterday, it was, 'Have I ever told you how hot you look while you take the candy from the vending machine?'. So, either you're trying to seduce me into your bed or you just really, really like me."

"Can't it be both?"

"Perhaps."

"Perhaps? Perhaps isn't good enough."

"Well, if I say yes... can I have some hot, freaky sex?"

"Hunny, if you say 'no', you can have some hot freaky sex. You could say, 'Ew, gross, get away from me!' and we could still have some hot freaky sex."

She giggled and straddled his waist. "Then, yes, no, and ew, gross, get away from me!" With that, they had some hot, freaky sex and then had some more hot, freaky sex... and then had some _more_ hot, freaky sex.

* * *

Sakura was awoken later that night by the phone ringing. She cursed under her breath and answered it none-too-kindly, "What?"

"Oh, sorry, Sakura," Kakashi apologized sincerely, his voice that same friendly tone he used before Sakura had known about his attempts to turn her into the police, "It's probably night-time there now, I'm not quite used to the time differences between Japan and Canada. Anyway, I just wanted to call and let you know that Canada has been alerted about your parents' presence in Edmonton and they have undercover police surrounding their house as we speak. Naruto and I are on the plane and we'll be there soon."

"Good to know," she yawned.

"I guess I'll let you get some more—oh, uh, hold on, Sakura, Naruto wants to talk to you."

Then, there was some silence until Naruto's voice was on the other end. "Saku-chan?"

"Hey, Naruto."

"You don't have to worry, Saku-chan, I've brought a bunch of rat poison and some rodent traps for Itachi," the blond said, sounding a little too genuine for Sakura's liking, "You don't have to put up with him anymore."

Sakura gazed down at the half-naked Itachi on the bed and smiled as he slept. He lay on his back, one arm stretched across the bed from when they'd fallen asleep in each other's arms, the other one covering his eyes as though to shield from an imaginary light. She chuckled lightly and placed a gentle kiss to his slightly parted lips. Then, catching herself, she remembered Naruto.

"Oh, um... thank you, Naruto," she said, chuckling a little sheepishly, "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a pass on that. You see, I've grown quite attached to your little rodent and I think I would have to kill you if you laid a hand on him."

There was silence on the other end until Naruto asked solemnly, "You two are really serious about this, aren't you?"

She sighed contentedly and played with a lock of the man's hair. "I think I may love him."

There was even more silence on the other end, and then a sigh. "Fine, we'll be nice to Itachi as long as he's nice to us. But, if he hurts you the way Ino and Hatori did, we get to kick his ass, alright?"

She chuckled. "Alright."

"Well, I guess I should let you slee—"

"Oh, wait," Sakura cut in, "I've been meaning to ask you. When I told you about Ino and Hatori, you got all mad, but it didn't seem like you were mad at Ino and Hatori. Who were you mad at?"

"Um... that's something I think we'd best talk about in person," he told her, "I think Kakashi and I have a lot to explain to you, the truth. So, that will definitely be one of the things we talk about."

"Oh, well, okay."

"Oh, and Saku-chan?"

"Hm?"

"I've wanted to talk to you for a while, ever since that wedding," he said sadly, "But we couldn't until all of this is cleared up and, even though it still isn't over, I want to tell you this. No matter what happens, whether we nab your parents or not, whether we try to be friends again or if we go our separate ways when this is all over, I'm really sorry. For what it's worth, you're a great singer, F.o.R would be more than happy to have you as its lead vocalist and we weren't acting friendly just to get your trust. Even Sasuke agreed that we all liked you."

"Um... thank you," she murmured, a bit flustered by the sudden change in attitude.

"Alright. Now I'll let you get some sleep." With that, the line went dead and Sakura sat on the bed, the phone against her ear, wondering what would happen once all of this was finished.

She doubted she could ever be friends with Kakashi and Naruto afterward, but she knew that she needed Itachi. What if he saw no reason to stick around, though? What if he decided he'd done his job and left her? Would she go back to Tokyo by herself? Would she be all alone once again?

She sighed and finally hung up the phone, curling into Itachi's side and resting her head on his chest. She breathed in his scent and sighed with an emotion between contentment and worry. "I love you."

There was no longer any doubt... she was in love with Uchiha Itachi and, if he betrayed her the way everybody else betrayed her, she knew that there was going to be no recovering from it.

A single tear escaped her closed eyes and she whispered once more before drifting off into sleep, "I love you."

* * *

A/N: Get in line, lady, there's a waiting list!


	20. Last Thought

A/N: Sorry for the late update, been pretty blocked. That's why this chapter sort of cuts out so quickly.

* * *

Uchiha Itachi had never been a very emotional man. Even in his childhood he had kept to himself and had very few relationships. Anytime he had been with a woman had either been nothing but a fling or a one night stand and, thanks to his good looks, it was easy to get a woman into bed. He had never stuck around in a relationship for more than a matter of weeks, most women were lucky to get that much time.

However, as he lay beside a sleeping Sakura, he couldn't imagine himself without her. When he thought of his life as a musician, in a different country every month, in a different hotel every few days, sharing his bed with a stranger that had a written statement from a doctor that she didn't have an STI, he felt lonely and cold. He knew that if he was forced to sleep without her, even the most luxurious of rooms would seem like a box on the side of a street and even the most comfortable of beds would feel cold uncomfortable.

In fewer words, Sakura had become an important part of his life and, if she disappeared, that part of his life couldn't be replaced so easily. It was quite possible that he loved her.

Love. It had been such a long time since he had even thought of that word that, when it popped into his mind, he had to decipher its meaning. He loved Sakura. He loved this young woman that was lying at his side, her head rested on his shoulder, crying in her sleep. He loved her.

And soon... soon everything would be over and what would they do? Would they go back to Tokyo, buy a house together and live happily ever after? He doubted it would be so simple. Despite the fact that Noriko and Tomi had given up their company, they would still have some dangerous contacts and, when they were put into jail, those contacts would be after Sakura and himself. They would have to hide for a while with quite an extensive amount of protection. If they didn't do that, they'd need to go into the Witness Protection Agency.

That, however, wasn't possible. They were pop icons, their faces had been plastered all over international television and anybody would recognize them as the lead singers of two very famous rock bands. No, hiding wasn't an option, but he refused to leave Sakura's side, no matter what happened in the end, he and Sakura would remain together.

At least, he hoped...

* * *

"Saku-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, the first out of the airport terminal, his arms outstretched to hug her. Unfortunately, because of his excessive speed and the strength with which he used to hug her, it was more of a tackle that sent her onto her back, the blond on top of her. "Oh, Saku-chan, we missed you so much! How are you? How have you been treated by everybody here? Have you learned any cool swear words in English? Can you teach them to me? Please, if I ask really nicely?"

Sakura was only able to gasp for breath as Naruto's weight squished her, leaving no room for air in her flattened lungs and listen to his incessant jabbering about how much he missed her and how much fun they were going to have in Eduardo Alvarado.

"If you're quite finished killing my girlfriend, Naruto," Itachi said rather coolly, the sound of the G-word coming from his mouth making Sakura's inability to breathe no longer because she couldn't but because she had forgotten how, "Why don't we go check you into a hotel so that you can have some rest and then we'll get to work."

"Oh, we don't really need to do much," Kakashi said, finally arriving with the luggage, a very bedraggled Sasuke in tow, a backpack slung over one shoulder and a pillow in his other arm, "Like we told you, Sakura, the Canadian police have their place surrounded, their just waiting for the right time to strike."

"Then why are you here?" Itachi asked none-too-kindly, receiving a warning glare from Sakura.

"Because we owe Sakura an explanation," the bassist-slash-manager answered, not daring to give a rude remark or risk the female singer's hellish wrath, "Actually, I slept quite well on the plane, I could stay up while the others sleep and I could explain things."

"Me, too!" Naruto exclaimed, finally getting up and helping Sakura up, as well. "I slept like a baby, so I can stay up, too."

Sasuke snorted, saying, "Yeah, and kept me up by snoring in my ear the entire goddamn time."

"Okay," Kakashi said, narrowly averting an all-out war between Naruto and the junior Uchiha, "So Sasuke can sleep and the rest of us will talk. We've already explained everything to him, anyway, so he's not exactly essential at the moment."

Sasuke was about to tell Kakashi off when Itachi cut-in, narrowly averting another war, "We rented a van, so we can all fit; our bill on the motel we were staying in has been paid off, so we can all go into the same hotel. I'm guessing you're looking for four-star or higher?"

Kakashi nodded. "You know us all too well, Uchiha, I can see how you managed to get passed us. Of course, all of the hotel fees, expenses for food and—" he paused to give Naruto an irritated glance, "Movie rentals will be paid by us, so either of you won't have to worry about such things."

"Hm, sounds nice," Itachi commented, "But why don't we stop standing around the airport like a bunch of goofs and head out? I know a decent hotel we can stay in."

"Right." With that, they all left to go to said hotel.

* * *

When they were checked into the hotel, room service had been ordered, Naruto had the remote so that he could sift through the pay per view, Sasuke had conked out in one of the bedrooms and everybody was settled in, Kakashi began.

"We were approached by the Japanese government long before any of this ever happened," he said, "Last year, during our Forever Resentful tour, out in Kyoto. They said that they would make us the biggest band out there by getting the media to come up with a battle-of-the-bands type deal for us and some other bands to compete in and, of course, my interest was piqued. Of course, nobody gets something for nothing, as a manager, I know that all too well. They said that we needed to help bust some terrorists and, since everybody seemed to like to know my opinion about such things, I supposed it couldn't hurt.

"I enlisted Naruto and we were going to add you, Itachi, when we found out that you had already volunteered yourself to the other side. That was definitely when we clashed, but the only thing we could agree on was to leave Sasuke out of it. It would have been unfair to make him choose between his brother and the only two people that he—silently, of course—could consider friends. Then we started the try-outs for a new singer. We turned everybody who tried out down and had planned to find a way of getting you in when you magically showed up. I would like to say you looked great, but, unfortunately, you didn't."

Sakura nodded in agreement. "Well, I had just gone through a terrible break-up that was what made me try out... so I guess you owe a lot to Hatori and Ino."

Kakashi sighed. "More than you know."

"Huh?"

"The police decided we needed to make the gig where we captured you the wedding of Ino and Hatori," Naruto said, not taking his eyes off the list of movies, "We had no idea why and thought better of asking about it... and then you told us the story about them. We figured it out that they had planned it that way, so that you wouldn't exactly be on your guard because of the wedding of the two people that had recently betrayed you. Personally, I thought it was despicable."

Kakashi nodded in agreement. "Fortunately, you're a great singer, so it wasn't like we had hired a completely tone-deaf broad. Unfortunately, we all liked you." Kakashi rolled his eyes when Naruto cleared his throat loudly, "Especially Naruto."

Sakura sighed. "I don't know what to think."

"We'll understand if you decide to never want to talk to us again after this."

She only sighed again. "I'll have to think about this." With that, she headed to her room to think over things. Unfortunately, she knew what she had to do. It was bye-bye F.o.R.

* * *

A/N: See what I mean?


	21. Protect Each Other

A/N: Here's the next chapter! It's much more serious than the other ones and it's really short, but I hope it's good because I am forcing my brain to work around a severely crippling block right now!

* * *

The knock at the door came at one in the morning, ominous and deceivingly quiet. Sakura and Itachi had been awake in bed (only talking, I swear!) when they heard it and they simply thought that Naruto had ordered another midnight snack and so ignored it. It wasn't until the second round of knocking came that they began to wonder.

"Stay here," Itachi said, giving her a light kiss on the forehead before getting out of the bed and pulling on a pair of pants. He was about the leave when Sakura hopped out of bed to pull on one of the terrycloth robes that came with the hotel suite and follow him. "I told you to stay."

She shook her head and argued, "If there are bad guys outside our hotel room, we're facing them together. I'm not going to let them shoot you while I cower under the covers like a little baby. What we do from now on, we do together."

He didn't look too convinced but when he saw the light of determination in her eyes, he sighed in relent and let her tag along. "Just don't get yourself killed, alright?"

"No promises." When Itachi turned a wide-eyed glare (making him look about as cute and cuddly as a pissed off bear in a room full of babies), she rolled her eyes and said, "Joking." He rolled his eyes in reply and walked out of the room.

Kakashi was already up, standing motionlessly at the door, a gun in one hand, mace in the other. As the knocking continued, he made no move to silence it and that set off a round of anxiousness in Sakura's belly. It obviously wasn't room service and she doubted Kakashi had been expecting the Canadian police.

"Answer it," Itachi growled impatiently, taking out his own gun. "Whoever it is, we can deal with him."

Kakashi looked back at the couple hesitantly, but reluctantly turned back to the door. After another couple moments' pause, he unlocked the hotel suite door and slowly eased it open to reveal a smiling young man. In one arm he held a large bouquet of red roses, it wouldn't be a bad guess to say that there were about thirty there, and, in the other he had a huge teddy bear with a red ribbon wrapped around it.

Sakura blinked in surprise and tried to hide the smile. Here was an errand boy delivering some flowers and a teddy bear to somebody only to be held at gunpoint by two hot, shirtless rock stars. Poor kid... the only thing she didn't understand, however, was why Itachi and Kakashi didn't lower their guns.

The boy seemed curious, but unafraid as he said, "Delivery for Haruno Sakura," he said in English and, although she didn't speak English, she recognized her name somewhere in there. Did this guy get threatened at gunpoint often in his deliveries? Well, perhaps if they were from an ex-lover or something somebody would shoot the messenger (literally), but that wasn't the case this time. What were they worried about?

Sakura sighed. She headed toward the door, ignoring Itachi's objections, squeezed passed Kakashi and looked at the flowers. "They're so pretty, who are they from? I don't see a card or anything." She ignored any of Itachi's rude remarks. The boy seemed to not understand her... which was odd since Kakashi and Itachi were speaking Japanese and he was acknowledging them.

"Better yet," Kakashi said, the picture of patience and composure even though it was obvious that he was rather peeved, "What's a flower boy doing delivering at this hour? Odd business hours for a flower shop, don't you think so, Itachi?"

"I believe we're in agreement, Kakashi," Itachi answered with no shortage of sarcasm in his voice, "If you're a simple paper boy, hand over the flowers, give Kakashi the teddy bear and get the hell out of here before I call up the manager and have you taken out by force."

The boy didn't even flinch and Sakura wondered if this sort of thing did happen often.

"Well?" Kakashi asked, allowing some impatience to bleed into him voice, "What are you waiting for? Hand over the things and leave. Oh, I'm sure you want a tip, though, aren't you? Will a hundred dollars do?"

"A hundred dollars?" Sakura asked, looking over her shoulder at Kakashi, "That's pretty cheap."

"A hundred dollars is a lot more than a hundred yen, Sakura."

"Oh, well then, that's pretty generous of—" She paused when Kakashi tensed and Itachi's lips pulled back into a snarl that showed all of his beautiful white teeth. She blinked in confusion and turned back to the flower boy to have the barrel of a gun shoved at her, practically tipping her over. "Huh...?" She forced her eyes away from the metal weapon being pointed at her and stared at the boy with disbelief.

The boy's polite smile had been replaced by a smirk and he randomly broke out into a Western song, singing, "Starin' down the barrel of a 45!"

Kakashi was silent, same with Itachi and she wanted to see them, to see if they were going to help her, but she couldn't bring herself to look away from her potential killer. She wanted to look at Kakashi and Naruto and tell them that she didn't hate them, tell Sasuke that she knew he wasn't as mean a hard-ass as he let on and Itachi... oh, Itachi. Right at that moment that she looked into the eyes of her killer, she wanted to tell him that she loved him just once.

The one thought that came into her mind before she heard one of the three guns in the room go off was that she had only told Itachi how deeply she cared for him while he was asleep. She hoped beyond all hope that her voice had made it into his subconscious memory and, if it did, that his voice would be able to follow her to the grave.

* * *

A/N: Heh heh heh.... oops... n.n;


	22. The Band Played On

A/N: As I promised a few of you (more like took necessary actions to keep some of you from killing yourselves or others (AKA me), here is the next chapter! The second last, so enjoy!

* * *

There was no pain and, for a moment Sakura was disappointed. She had just prepared herself to die, she had thought mushy thoughts, had silently rambled uselessly about regrets that she had no way of fulfilling because she was going to die and... and she wasn't going to die?! How unfair was that?! Once she regained her composure and realized just what she was thinking, she shook her head with a roll of her eyes. She was alive and she should be happy.

_Wait... if a gun went off and I'm not dead... then who got shot?_ She pondered this for a moment before she heard a soft grunting sound allowed her eyes to refocus on the boy before her. His white button-down shirt had a hole in it and around the hole was a steadily-growing red stain.

The boy had been shot! But by who? She turned to see a hateful scowl on Itachi's face and an outstretched arm holding a gun... a smoking gun. "Say hello to my little friend! See? You're not the only one that can make lame American quotes." Sakura didn't like the tone with which he shot off this insult. His voice sounded emotionless, remorseless, unfeeling and, most of all, dead. This was a new side she was seeing of him and she did not like it.

"But Scarface was a pretty good movie, don't you think?" Kakashi asked amiably as though there wasn't a young man loosely gripping a gun in his hand with a bullet lodged into his belly, as though another man hadn't just shot another human being with the intent to kill, as though Sakura's heart was ripping in two at the sight of her love's cruel side... his murderous side.

"It wasn't too bad," Itachi replied, his voice not that same monotonous droll, "Al Pacino played his role quite well." Finally, his cold black eyes left the boy and slowly moved to her, his look still cold. It felt as though he wasn't looking at her, but through her to her very soul. It felt like he was a completely different person now and that she didn't know him at all. But then his mouth quirked up in a half-hearted smile and his voice changed to become a bit softer as he said, "Sakura... perhaps I've said this before, but have I ever told you how hot you look when you're scared senseless?"

There was the old Itachi. Sakura let out a mental sigh of relief and thanked heaven that the Itachi she had seen when she'd shot the boy wasn't here to stay and, if he was, she had a special privilege that kept him normal just for her. He was still the man she loved, if only for her. She choked back a sob as tears welled in her eyes and she answered, "As a matter of fact... I-I think you have." She rushed forward, Itachi meeting her half way, and she threw her arms around him as he did the same. "I-I thought I was going to die!"

"I would never allow that," he whispered in her ear, holding her so tight she could barely breathe, but she loved it. She wanted to stay like this forever, in his arms as he took her breath away with his kisses. "You should know by now that I would never let any harm come to you... I'd rather die."

"And I'd rather die than let you get hurt."

"Then I think we've got a problem," he chuckled softly, his breath tickling her ear and making her shudder, "I'm not letting you die and you're not letting me die... does that mean that nobody's dying?"

"That just won't do," she giggled.

"How dare we stay alive?"

"Unthinkable!"

"Um, guys?" Kakashi asked, a hint of amusement in his voice, "I hate to break up this little love scene here, but we've got a kid here that's bleeding to death, the manager and a whole mess of cops are going to up here soon. We could easily call Chief Greene over here, he's the Edmonton police chief, to deal with the situation, but I'm pretty sure you want to deal with this kid by yourself. What do we do?"

Itachi reluctantly let her go and turned to the boy who had fallen to his knees, his head bowed, and his hair falling over his face, making him look broken and defeated. But as he slowly raised his head, his entire body quaking with the effort, the hate and anger told a different story. His eyes sang of defiance and, by the way his shoulder seemed to be moving, it was obvious he was trying to raise his arm. When he finally managed to raise the hand holding the gun, his eyes were half-lidded, the gun in his hand dangling in his fingers, he was gasping for air and tears welled in his eyes, but then his face twisted into a look of misery. He wasn't going to be shooting anybody.

"They told me..." he gasped, his words gnarled by weak sobs that racked his entire body, making him look like what he was... a little boy, "They told that if I killed her... I-I would... I would... they promised me... they promised."

"Whatever they promised," Itachi said, his voice giving way to pity for the child, "You will find it in the afterlife."

"I want," he sobbed, "I want... m-my... momma."

That confession broke Sakura's heart in two and all she wanted to do was hold the little boy. And she thought her parents couldn't get any lower. How old was this boy, thirteen? Fourteen? How could they recruit such a young boy to do their murderous bidding and tell him that he would be reunited to his estranged mother? This thought filled Sakura with an all new rage.

"My parents deserve to die," she hissed.

But then the boy's eyes began to roll into the back of his head and his fingers gave way to the gun that suddenly looked like a lead weight. It fell to the floor, landing on the corner of the slider. It discharged and, since the barrel was cocked at a very coincidental angle, the bullet somehow managed to stake its path right for Sakura and Itachi.

To this day Sakura couldn't understand how Itachi had managed to move so fast. He managed to push her out of the way, but, unfortunately, didn't have time to get himself out of the way. The bullet went into his back; luckily about three inches shy of one of his lungs.

It had been a close call, but if the barrel of the gun had been only a few inches to the right of the position it had been in, Itachi would have been a dead man... and that was the fact that Sakura relied on to keep herself from killing herself in misery.

Her love had been saved. At the moment the little boy collapsed onto the floor, finally at peace, and Itachi had been pierced by the bullet, Haruno Tomi and Noriko were arrested for terrorism, running from the police and death threats. They were going to be put a way for a long, long time when they got back to Tokyo.

* * *

A/N: This chapter, as I said earlier, is the second last one, so you mean what that means? Good, 'cause I sure don't lol!


	23. The End

A/N: Wah, last chapter! So sad! Okay, in all seriousness, I do not like this last chapter and I will probably end up replacing it sometime in the future. Unfortunately, my writer's block is at its worst and I can't do any better, so this will have to do. Sorry!

* * *

"Are you ready?" his words travels through the air thick with humidity from the packed auditorium, "Think you can do this?"

"If we can go through what we have over the past few weeks, I think we can do this," she answered confidently, "Are you ready, my love?"

He nodded, kissing her neck tenderly. "I've done this before, remember?"

"But I bet you've never done a concert like this before, right?"

"Can't say I have."

"Good."

With that, she gave him a kiss on the lips as the stage lights turned on to show each band member one at a time: Deidara and Sasuke at their guitars; Sasori and Kakashi at their basses; Kisame at the drum set and Naruto at the keyboard. With each light that went on, the audience grew louder and louder, screaming and cheering for whoever their favorite member was. Then, the last two lights went on at the same time to show Sakura and Itachi at their individual microphones and the audience went crazy.

"Ladies and gentleman!" Sakura exclaimed into her microphone, "I'm quite sure you're aware that this is supposed to be a battle-of-the-bands concert and that Sub-Zero Solution and Forever of the Resentful are supposed to be competing... but we decided to switch it up."

"Thanks to certain circumstances," Itachi picked up where his fiancé left off, "Haruno Sakura and I are inseparable at the moment, so we are going to do this concert and just about every concert together."

"If any of you got a problem with that, go whine to somebody who cares," Sasuke added and all the women in the audience swooned. The younger Uchiha smirked and started strumming chords on his guitar.

Kisame started the beat and then the rest of the band kick-started the one and only cover they were going to play that night.

Itachi began the vocals, singing, "You can't quit until you try/You can't live until you die/You can't learn to tell the truth/Until you learn to lie...

"You can't breathe until you choke/You gotta laugh when you're the joke/There's nothing like a funeral to make you feel alive." And then Sakura jumped in to sing with him as his hand reached to take hers. They stood together, hand-in-hand, content despite all of the difficulties they had faced not long before. "Just open your eyes/Just open your eyes/And see that life is beautiful/Will you swear on your life/That no one will cry at my funeral?"

The crowd cheered, the stage crew celebrated a successful concert and the band played. And that was how it would be, no matter what happened, no matter how many fans there were waiting for their next album, no matter how many troubles lay ahead in their future, the band would play.

At the end of the song, Sakura and Itachi shouted in unison, "Thank you, everybody, we're Sub-Zero Resentment!"

And the band played on.

XOXO

"I love you," Sakura whispered in the darkness of their bedroom, her nude body tangled with Itachi's as they made love. "I love you so much."

"And I you," he replied, burying his face in her neck, suckling the tender skin there, "Forever."

"Forever and ever?"

"Forever and ever and ever."

"Good," she sighed.

Yes, they would love each other forever, they would hold each other forever, they would be by each other's side forever. They would love each other forever... and the band would play on.

"Itachi?"

"Hm?"

"Whatever happened to that hotel room the police destroyed in Eduardo Alvarado? Who paid for the damages to it?"

"Your parents, of course."

Sakura couldn't help it. She burst out laughing, Itachi chuckling along with her. "So, technically, since that fortune is mine now, I paid for it?"

He thought for a moment then answered, "Have I ever told you how hot you look when you're being generous and charitable and not wanting to murder your fiancé in cold blood?"

She sighed and answered, "I'm not sure, why don't you try it and see what happens?"

"Ooh, feisty."

"That's what you fell in love with."

"No, I fell in love with that ass."

She smacked him and said seriously, "So, now that we've won the contest, are we continuing with Sub-Zero Resentment or are we playing as two separate bands?"

"What happened to us never parting? I would be honoured to continue Sub-Zero Resentment."

She smiled. "I feel the same way."

And the band would play on.

* * *

A/N: See what I mean? Horrible. But, anyway, I really hoped you enjoyed this story bcause I had fun writing it and I'm quite sure that CandyLava had fun writing the chapters she wrote, too. So, if you enjoyed ths story, feel free to visit our individual accounts and see other stories that you just might enjoy.

Thank you to all who have reviewed! Love you all and I hope to see some of you later, if not on my Itachilova101 account, then on this one! Ja ne!

Italova... OUT!!!


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